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In some strange, true romance with evil’s ways,

Belike another method we’ll require

To subjugate the dark side that’s within.

Lightsabers out, my brothers in the storm:

Thus shall he know the tenor of our presence.

Enter
C
HANCELLOR
P
ALPATINE
.

PALPATINE

O, Master Windu, you have come at last.

Methinks this meaneth Grievous is destroy’d,

Though you arrive far sooner than expected.

MACE

Your time hath come, misguided Chancellor.

I do adjure you, in the name of the

Proud family of systems—yea, e’en our

Galactic Senate of our strong Republic—

Submit to us who now make your arrest.

PALPATINE

You dare to threaten me, you Jedi knave?

MACE

I shall not be ghostwriter to your fate;

The Senate shall decide what comes of you.

PALPATINE

I am the Senate; aye, the Senate’s mine.

No Jedi rogue shall stand athwart my way.

MACE

You may not hold the Senate by your will,

Code one-eight-seven doth forbid it so.

PALPATINE

’Tis treason, then, and I shall haply mete

To each of you a traitor’s punishment.

[Palpatine brandishes his lightsaber and attacks quickly, dueling with all four Jedi. He quickly kills all but Mace.

MACE

[
aside:
] His skill is far past mine imagining.

This fighting’s hard—eight Jedi more I should

Have brought with me. Yet still I may prevail—

A Jedi Master, I!—so fear him not.

He flips and parries, such as I’d not think

Is possible for one so old as he.

[Mace breaks the window of the chancellor’s apartment.

I press him, merely steps from death’s embrace.

I have th’advantage. Ha! He falls and drops

His lightsaber beyond the window frame.

[
To Palpatine:
] Desist at once—I make th’arrest, my lord.

[Palpatine is cornered near the window as Mace advances.

PALPATINE

O, ahh, O, help! What treachery, I’ll die!

Enter
A
NAKIN
S
KYWALKER
.

ANAKIN

Good sir, my soul could not sit idly by.

Yet what is this—how hath this stage been set?

PALPATINE

Observe, mine Anakin, observe this scene—

I said to thee that it would come to this,

The Jedi taking over forcefully.

Observe, O, Anakin, with thine own eyes!

MACE

His cunning lies are verily among

The great performances of our time, ha!

Yet pray, do not believe his villainy.

Th’oppression of the Sith must ne’er return,

Not were another thousand years to come.

The curtain falls on you, vile Palpatine.

PALPATINE

Nay, there you badly have misspoke your line:

’Tis you shall die, as I bring forth my fire!

The traitor shall endure a traitor’s end.

[Palpatine shoots lightning from his fingers at Mace, who deflects it with his lightsaber back onto Palpatine.

MACE

O, awful trick of Sith’s great treachery,

Yet I shall turn his weapons back on him.

See, Anakin, ’tis he who traitor is.

Prithee, listen not to how the black

Snake moaneth unto thee—he’s but an actor,

A player from whose mouth doth spew forth lies!

[Palpatine begins to wither under the blast of the lightning.

PALPATINE

’Tis only I who have what thou dost need:

The secret that may save the one thou lov’st.

Make thou the choice e’en now, brave Anakin,

Else he shall be mine end; my strength doth fail.

The mighty weaver, Fate, doth bid me exit—

No more can I endure this torture harsh.

MACE

Withhold from him thine ears, young Skywalker—

No monologue of his shalt thou believe.

A time to kill hath, in its time, arriv’d.

I’ll end his life for all eternity.

ANAKIN

Nay, nay! ’Tis not your place to sentence pass—

He must stand trial in the Senate, see?

MACE

Use thou some logic! We must never grant

This hard—as temper’d iron—man two chances.

Forsooth, he 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,