Chapter 92

  Immediately, I recast my doppelgangers, and they left to hide. No longer would they attack the enemy, but instead, they would watch them, collect information, and stay out of everyone's way. Each one could blend into their surroundings, leaving zero trace of ever existing. Due to the ability to change lightning colours and illusions, we could walk through a hoard without being noticed. If it wasn't for the flickering effects of stealth when using other force power, I would have won by now but even force speed caused my stealth to collapse.

  That wasn't why I dismissed my doppelganger throughout the world. Instead, I wanted to instil a false sense of security and let the enemy think that they had killed me. The timing was everything, so when the perception of me being killed in a cave system through the action of their kill squad, it was too much of an opportunity not to act on their script. I made my fighting force weaker by dismissing my doppelgangers, but I would now build my strength back up using the Sith Eternal's unearned perception of victory.

  It was risky but something I was not only familiar with but a master.

  The doppelgangers spread far and wide. Once the battlefield calmed down, the new mushroom forest continued to grow and what little peace Exegol had apparently returned. The Sith Eternal retrieved the last orange lightsaber from the depths of the cave system and believed that they had won.

  Thankful, for once, the absolute heavy dark side energy hid my existence to the force. Any weird feelings or premonitions that a force user would use to warn them was just a normal day on Exegol.

  The long, ten-year private war between me and the Sith Eternal resulted in a pointless battle of attrition. I wasn't able to gain any long-term land before the Sith would bomb the absolute crap out of it.

  It was somewhat of a failure. I couldn't gain a base, and my enemy wasn't weakened permanently. Now, the doppelgangers and I stepped into the old familiar role of spymasters and saboteurs.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The Sith Eternal and the true Palpatine concentrated on their automatic manufacture factories and creating starships. Ghost Yoda panicked at the sight of the starships. He left to tell the Jedi what was happening and to warn them of the future.

  I waited for years, hiding in plain sight and using illusions. I had thought that Yoda had abounden his mission to protect the Jedi and the newer republic when a vast amount of ships burst into the atmosphere and Yoda matrialised beside me.

  Yoda would have come sooner but he had to find the Wayfinder to Exegol, and the only one he knew about that was Darth Vader. It took Yoda all of this time to pinpoint the fleeing Vader and retrieve the wayfinder.

  Spotting so many allies quickened my soul. I could finish this damnable fight, destroy Palpatine and be on my way. To my great displeasure, the air picked up a heavy dose of ozone, and the hairs on my arm raised. I knew what was coming; Palpatine was bringing the big guns out and turning the very environment against the new ships. Palpatine had done this several times to my doppelgangers when they captured a key base. Instead of fighting to retrieve the fallen base, lightning crashed down and vaporised the base to slag.

  I needed my allies so I could get off Exegol, and because I didn't know which ship had the wayfinde, I had to protect them.

  Thousands of doppelgangers revealed themselves and took to the sky, each one landing on a newly arrived ship, causing their crew to wonder what was going on. Before anyone could answer, the atmosphere exploded with light. Massive streams of natural lightning burst forth, causing everyone to be blinded by stinging white light. only a faint glow showed the doppelgangers fighting back with their own powers.

  It wasn't enough as the lightning overwhelmed the doppelgangers; some were able to deflect nature's lightning, but the majority took a full load and evaporated. Possibly thanks to the doppelganger, many of the ship's survived, but they lost power and had to make emergency landings.

  The natural lightning steadily lashed out. It didn't matter that my doppelgangers were doing their best to protect them; it was a force of nature against a copy, and the copy couldn't stand against it.

  With little choice, I used my detonator to explode all of my secret explosions planted throughout Exegol. My dopplegangers didn't just hide; they sabotaged. With a single click, the ground flashed with orange explosions mirroring the white lightning in the sky. Years of hidden explosives released their payload and erupted together, causing fire and smoke to plume like a field of flowers.

  It was enough to cause whatever Palpatine was doing with lightning to lose concentration and make the ever-growing natural lightning falter and stop. I saved my ride home but at the cost of an easier win against Palpatine