Free 159474808X by Ian Doescher

is too dangerous to live!
    PALPATINE
I bid thee, beg thee: let me not be slain.
I am so weak, defeated by your might.
    ANAKIN
’Tis not the Jedi way! He must not die—
I need him, O, I need him more than life.
[Mace begins to strike down Palpatine, but Anakin cuts off Mace’s hand with his lightsaber.
    MACE
O, agony! Mine hand dead—and alive
I suffer by the hand of Jedi Knight!
    PALPATINE
Ha! Power reigns, and thus you meekly die—
O, pow’r unlimited, I am your god!
[Palpatine/Darth Sidious strikes Mace with lightning, and Mace falls out the window, dead.
    ANAKIN
Alas, what have I done? This noble man,
Whom with a crack’d heart I have sent to death,
Lov’d me above the measure of a father,
Nay, Jedi Master he made me, indeed.
    SIDIOUS
’Tis here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
Thou dost begin to know thy destiny
And see it well fulfill’d, strong Anakin.
Become my true apprentice; thou shalt learn
To use the potent dark side of the Force.
    ANAKIN
As you command me, thus shall I perform.
    SIDIOUS
’Tis well.
    ANAKIN
—But help me safeguard Padmé’s life,
And you shall have mine endless loyalty.
Sans her, my life is forfeit. O, my life!
    SIDIOUS
To conquer death but one man hath achiev’d,
Yet I am certain we shall make it so
And know the secret if we work as one.

[Anakin kneels before Sidious.
    ANAKIN
Mine utmost fealty I pledge to you,
Unto your teachings and your wise command.
    SIDIOUS
Thy meek subservience I do embrace,
As if thou wert the match to mine own heart.
The Force is strong with thee, good Anakin,
And thou a Sith impressive shalt become.
Henceforth thou shalt be call’d a diff’rent name,
A name that shall inspire both dread and fear
In all who hear it utter’d: rise, Darth Vader.
[Anakin rises as Darth Vader.
    VADER
Thank you, my Master. I shall serve you well.
    Enter Y ODA , on balcony.
    YODA
Alas, what is this?
Some disturbance vast shakes me,
Profound disquiet.
Happen’d something has:
I see destruction, pain, death,
The rising darkness.
My friend Mace Windu—
Your screams in mine ears echo—
What hath befallen?
[Exit Yoda.
    SIDIOUS
[ to Vader: ] Because the Council did not trust in thee,
Mine eager, deferential young apprentice,
Methinks thou art the only Jedi left
Who knoweth naught of their impending plot.
When all the Jedi learn what happen’d here,
We shall be slaughter’d ere the night is through
And ev’ry senator as well.
    VADER
—’Tis true,
They shall move ’gainst the Senate straightaway.
    SIDIOUS
Each Jedi, even Obi-Wan Kenobi—
Thy friend—is now Republic’s enemy.
    VADER
Your meaning is most plain, my Master, aye.
    SIDIOUS
With haste we’ll act against the Jedi Knights,
They who, with their ambition obstinate,
Would turn the galaxy to civil war
Unless they are not speedily dispatch’d.
My will is settl’d: thou must venture forth
Unto the Jedi temple. We shall catch
Them unawares—yea, Vader, make it so.
Show thou no hesitation, neither shalt
Thou have a shred of mercy in thine heart.
When this is done, thou shalt be strong enow
To save thy Padmé by the dark side’s pow’r.
    VADER
What of the other Jedi various,
Who wander o’er the galaxy entire?
    SIDIOUS
We shall in time repay their treachery.
Once thou hast kill’d the Jedi in the temple,
Go thou unto the system Mustafar,
There shalt thou murther Viceroy Gunray and
The other leaders of the Sep’ratists.
Once more we Sith shall rule the galaxy,
And peace—the peace of darkness whole—shall reign.
[Exit Darth Sidious.
    VADER
A Sith am I—what change o’er me hath come?
Most like a vast, inconstant moon I rise,
And just as vile: the moon’s an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.
Just so have I my future stolen from
My Master Windu, slain by mine own hand.
Then, like an unfix’d moon, my face I change,
From light to dark my lunar cycle runs
And now the orbit of mine astral flight
Doth circle ’round my lord, Darth Sidious.
Darth Sidious, so strange to call him lord,
He who