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VADER

—Thou, liar, shalt die soon:

Thou didst bring him to kill me—’tis a fact!

[Vader begins to choke Padmé using the Force.

OBI-WAN

Release her, Anakin—indeed, at once!

VADER

[
aside:
] Forsooth, my vengeance should strike where ’tis due.

[Vader releases Padmé, who falls aside, unconscious.

[
To Obi-Wan:
] You turn’d my love, mine only love against me!

OBI-WAN

Thine actions sole are cause to that effect.

Forswear the chancellor, and be restor’d:

The rudder of thy ship may still be turn’d.

VADER

You shall not take her from me, wretched man—

She is my stay, mine anchor in the storm.

OBI-WAN

Thine anger is the wind that blows her hence;

Thy lust for pow’r the sail that steers her far.

Thou hast allow’d the villain Palpatine

To navigate the compass of thy soul,

To serve as captain of thine heart’s dark course.

Upon thy once-still waters hath he play’d,

Till thou art like to be the very thing

Thou’d once have fac’d a tempest to destroy.

VADER

Press not your even-keel’d advice on me.

The lies of your weak Jedi Order are

But troubl’d oceans that do swell and ebb,

Yet my ship is not sway’d upon their tides.

I do not fear to row toward the dark:

Now peaceful currents run because of me,

Now freedom doth resound upon the flow,

Now justice have I brought unto the deep,

Now quick security doth chart my way,

Now am I admiral to Empire new.

I am the monarch of the sea: a Sith.

OBI-WAN

An empire new—what chantey mad is this?

VADER

Do not make me destroy you, Obi-Wan.

OBI-WAN

My steadfast loyalty is to th’Republic,

Unto democracy mine hull is moor’d.

VADER

If you shall pilot by another path,

You sink and are become mine enemy.

OBI-WAN

None but a Sith would set his helm so straight,

As though beset by terrors all around.

A Jedi knoweth well the difference

Betwixt a proper pride and misled hubris.

A Jedi doth not deal in absolutes.

I shall do what I must to set thee right.

VADER

You shall attempt it, aye, but shall be wreck’d.

[Obi-Wan and Vader duel with lightsabers.

OBI-WAN

[
aside:
] Alas! What skill and strength the boy displays—

He doth advance and forces my retreat.

Still, one advantage doth remain to me:

’Twas I who taught him all that he doth know.

VADER

If not by saber, by mine hand you’ll die!

[Vader begins to choke Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan kicks him and is released.

OBI-WAN

[
aside:
] Alas, mayhap I did o’errate my strength,

For almost hath he vanquish’d me. Beware,

O’erhasty Obi-Wan, and take more care.

VADER

[
aside:
] As soon as I do strike him, he doth rise.

If my lightsaber shall not win the duel,

Mayhap my knowledge of the Force shall do’t.

OBI-WAN

Now come, thou Force of light, and be mine aid!

[They try to use the Force against each other, but both are flung back.

Enter
R
UMOR
above, on balcony.

RUMOR

The work of Rumor here is nearly done,

Intensely now the Jedi two do fight.

Such skill and prowess not to be outdone,

A battle twixt two equals: might and might.

Mine efforts to distort, blur, and confuse

Obscur’d the Jedi Order’s vision well;

Surrounded by disorder, they did choose

To hide within their Force-protected shell.

E’en now they start to bear the consequences—

Pursu’d throughout the galaxy by hate,

Intimidated, sans their strong defenses,

Cold is the end that they are spun by Fate.

Defeat the Jedi know, and these last two—

United in a fight unto the death—

Engage each other with a hate undue.

Lo, this is how sly Rumor takes their breath.

[Exit Rumor. Obi-Wan and Vader continue to duel, moving outside near the lava pits.

VADER

[
aside:
] I shall pursue him, on the planet’s surface,

Where only these foul fires of Mustafar

Can match the bright inferno in my soul.

OBI-WAN

[
aside:
] Now hath the time more desperate become—

Upon a precipice above the lava

The fight continues, we two balancing

As though we were some meat above a fire,

A skewer’d spit that slowly turns and roasts.

These huge machines perchance may be our death—

To mine advantage I must make them work.

The springs of gushing magma all around

Encompass us, an ’twere the light of hell

That shone upon our dismally join’d fates.

VADER

[
aside:
] This platform is assail’d with lava rocks,

A’flying through the air like hailstones wild.

A momentary pause we must endure,

Ere we may fight again with vim renew’d.

OBI-WAN

[
aside:
] Alas, we fall into the lava pit!

If we do not destroy each other, then,

Belike, this planet shall undo us both.

We float upon a sea of molten flame,

Yet still doth Anakin pursue my life.

O, what did I e’er do to raise his ire,

How did I so affront him, earn his scorn?

VADER

[
aside:
] He leaps from this o’erleaning bit of tower,

Which soon shall be engulfèd in the fire.

A floating platform hath he found in time,

And so must I if I would yet survive.

[Obi-Wan lands safely on a floating platform; Vader leaps onto a droid floating over the lava. They resume their duel.

OBI-WAN

[
aside:
] Ne’er have I, ere this skirmish, fought a fight

That was so plainly perilous as this.

Ne’er hath the setting for a battle been

So passing strange as here on Mustafar.

Ne’er hath the outcome been so very vital

For me and for my feelings personal.

Ne’er hath it been ere now and, yea, methinks

’Twill never be again, for ne’er shall I

Face him in mortal combat after this.

[
To Vader:
] ’Tis true that I have fail’d thee, Anakin—

Thy course is but a failure to my name.

VADER

I should have known the Jedi would attempt

To vanquish the Republic and seize pow’r.

OBI-WAN

O, listen to thy words: the chancellor,

E’en Palpatine, ’tis he who evil is.

VADER

Yet from a certain point of view—e’en mine—

The Jedi are the base and evil ones.

OBI-WAN

Then art thou lost indeed, my onetime friend.

VADER

Herein shall be the end of Obi-Wan:

My Master he, who died on Mustafar.

[Vader leaps onto Obi-Wan’s platform. They duel.