uto, 7. lipnja '05 u 07:24
Ja trenutno citam knjigu...
Dio koji nije u filmu, kada Anakin odlazi iz Jedi Templea da odreze Maceu ruku:
As shouts of the Force scattered Redrobesbeyondtheoffice'souter
doors, the shadow gestured and lampdisks ignited. Another shout of the Force
burst open the inner door to the private office. As Jedi stormed in, a final
flick of the shadow's will triggered a recording device concealed within the
desk.
Audio only.
"Why, Master Windu," said the shadow. "What a pleasant surprise."
Shaak Ti felt him coming before shecouldseehim.Theinfra-and
ultrasound-sensitive cavities in the tall, curving montrals toeitherside
of her head gave herasenseanalogoustotouch:thetextureofhis
approaching footsteps was ragged as old sacking. As he rounded the corner to
the landing deck door, his breathing felt like apileofgravelandhis
heartbeat was spiking like a Zabrak's head.
He didn't look good, either; he was deathly pale, even for a human, and
his eyes were raw.
"Anakin," she said warmly. Perhaps a friendly word was what heneeded;
she doubted he'd gotten many from Mace Windu. "Thank you for whatyouhave
done. The Jedi Order is in your debt-the whole galaxy, as well."
"Shaak Ti. Get out of my way."
Shaky as he looked, there was nothing unsteady inhisvoice:itwas
deeper than she remembered,moremature,anditcarriedundertonesof
authority that she had never heard before.
And she was not blind to the fact he had neglected to call her Master.
She put forth a hand, offering calming energies through the Force. "The
Temple is sealed, Anakin. The door is code-locked."
"And you're in the way of the pad."
She stepped aside, allowing him to the pad; she had no reasontokeep
him here against his will. Hepunchedthecodehungrily."IfPalpatine
retaliates," she said reasonably, "is not your place here, to help withour
defense?"
"I'm the chosen one. My place is there." His breathingroughened,and
he looked as if he was getting even sicker. "I have to be there. That'sthe
prophecy, isn't it? I have to be there-"
"Anakin, why? The Masters are the bestoftheOrder.Whatcanyou
possibly do?"
The door slid open.
"I'm the chosen one," he repeated. "Prophecy can't be changed. I'll do-"
He looked at her with eyes that were dying, and a spasm ofunendurable
pain passed over his face. Shaak Ti reached for him- heshouldbeinthe
infirmary, not heading toward what might be a savage battle-buthelurched
away from her hand.
"I'll do what I'm supposed to do," he said, and sprinted into the night
and the rain.
I sada Windu VS Obi-wan, jako zanimljivo, predlazem da procitate
[the following is a transcript of an audio recording presentedbefore
the Galactic Senate on the afternoon of the first Empire Day; identities of all speakers verified and confirmedby voiceprint analysis]
PALPATINE: Why, Master Windu. What a pleasant surprise.
MACE WINDU: Hardly a surprise, Chancellor. And it will be pleasantfor
neither of us.
PALPATINE: I'm sorry? Master Fisto, hello. Master Kolar,greetings.I
trust you are well. Master Tiin-I see your horn has regrown; I'm veryglad.
What brings four Jedi Masters to my office at this hour?
MACE WINDU: We know who you are. What you are. We are here to takeyou
into custody.
PALPATINE: I beg your pardon? What I am? When last I checked, I was Supreme Chancellor of the Republic you are sworn to serve. I hope I misunderstand what you mean by custody, Master Windu. It smacks of treason.
MACE WINDU: You're under arrest.
PALPATINE: Really, Master Windu, you cannot be serious. On what charge?
MACE WINDU: You're a Sith Lord!
PALPATINE: Am I? Even if true, that's hardly a crime. My philosophical outlook is a personalmatter. In fact- the last time I readthe Constitution,anyway-we have very strict laws against this type of persecution. So I ask you again: what is my alleged crime? How do you expect to justify your mutiny before the Senate? Or do you intend to arrest the Senate as well?
MACE WINDU: We're not here to argue with you.
PALPATINE: No, you're here to imprison me without trial. Without even
the pretense of legality. So this is the plan, at last: the Jedi are taking
over the Republic.
MACE WINDU: Come with us. Now.
PALPATINE: I shall do no such thing. If you intend tomurderme,you
can do so right here.
MACE WINDU: Don't try to resist.
[sounds that have been identified by frequencyresonancestobethe
ignition of several lightsabers]
PALPATINE: Resist? How could I possibly resist?Thisismurder,you
Jedi traitors! How can I beanythreattoyou?MasterTiin-you'rethe
telepath. What am I thinking right now?
[sounds of scuffle]
KIT FISTO: Saesee-
AGEN KOLAR: [garbled; possibly "It doesn't hurt"(?)]
[sounds of scuffle]
PALPATINE: Help! Help! Security-someone! Help me! Murder! Treason!
[recording ends]
A fountain of amethyst energy burst from Mace Windu's fist. "Don'ttry
to resist."
The song of his blade was echoed by green fire from thehandsofKit
Fisto, Agen Kolar, and Saesee Tiin. Kolar and Tiin closed on Palpatine, blocking the path to the door. Shadows dripped and oozed color, weaving and coilingupofficewallsslippingoverchairs, spreading along the floor.
"Resist? How couldIpossiblyresist?"Stillseatedatthedesk
Palpatine shook an empty fist helplessly, theperfectimageofatired,
frightened old man. "This is murder, you Jedi traitors! HowcanIbeany
threat to you?"
He turned desperately to Saesee Tiin. "Master Tiin-you're the telepath.
What am I thinking right now?"
Tiin frowned andcockedhishead.Hisbladedipped.Asmearof
red-flashing darkness hurtled from behind the desk.
Saesee Tiin's head bounced when it hit the floor.
Smoke curled from the neck, and from thetwinstumpsofthehorns,
severed just below the chin.
Kit Fisto gasped, "Saesee!"
The headless corpse, still standing, twisted as its knees buckled,and
a thin sigh escaped from its trachea as it folded to the floor.
"It doesn't..." Agen Kolar swayed.
His emerald blade shrankaway,andthehandgriptumbledfromhis
opening fingers. A small, neat hole in the middleofhisforeheadleaked
smoke, showing light from the back of his head.
"... hurt..."
He pitched forward onto his face, and lay still.
Palpatine stood at the doorway, but thedoorstayedshut.Fromhis
right hand extended a blade the color of fire.
The door locked itself at his back.
"Help! Help!" Palpatine cried like a manindesperatefearforhis
life. "Security-someone! Help me! Murder! Treason!"
Then he smiled.
He held one finger to his lips, and, astonishingly, he winked.
In the blank second that followed, while Mace Windu and Kit Fisto could
do no more than angle their lightsabers to guard, Palpatine swiftlystepped
over the bodies back toward his desk, reversed his blade, and drove it in a swift,surgicallyprecisestab down through his desktop.
"That's enough of that."
He let it burn its way free through the front, then he turned,lifting
his weapon, appearing to study it as one might study the face ofabeloved
friend one has long thought dead. Power gathered around him until theForce
shimmered with darkness.
"If you only knew," hesaidsoftly,perhapsspeakingtotheJedi
Masters, or perhaps to himself, or perhaps even to the scarlet bladelifted
now as though in mocking salute, "how long I have been waiting for this..."
Anakin's speeder shrieked through the rain,dodgingforkedboltsof
lightning that shot up from towers into the clouds, slicingacrosstraffic
lanes, screaming past spacescrapers sofastthathisshock-wakecracked
windows as he passed.
He didn't understand why people didn't just getoutofhisway.He
didn't understand how the trillion beings who jammed Galactic City couldgo
about their trivial business as thoughtheuniversehadn'tchanged.How
could they think they counted for anything, compared with him?
How could they think they still mattered?
Their blind lives meant nothing now. None of them.Becauseahead,on
the vast cliff face of the Senate Office Building, one window spat lightning
into the rain to echo the lightning of the storm outside-but thislightning
was the color of clashing lightsabers.
Green fans, sheets of purple-
And crimson flame.
He was too late.
The green fire faded and winked out; now the lightning was onlypurple
and red.
His repulsorlifts howled as he heeled the speederupontoitsside,
skidding through wind-shear turbulence to bring it to a bobbing halt outside the window of Palpatine's private office. Ablast of lightning hit the spire of 500 Republica, only a kilometer away, andits white burst flared off the window, flash-blinding him; he blinked furiously, slapping at his eyes in frustration.
The colorless glare inside his eyes faded slowly, bringing into focus a
jumble of bodies on the floor of Palpatine's private office.
Bodies in Jedi robes.
On Palpatine's desk lay the head of Kit Fisto, faceup,scalp-tentacles
unbound in a squid-tangle acrosstheebonite.Hislid-lesseyesstared
blindly at the ceiling. Anakin remembered himinthearenaatGeonosis,
effortlessly carving his way through wave after wave ofcombatdroids,on
his lips a gently humorous smile as though thehorrificbattlewereonly
some friendly jest. His severed head wore that same smile.
Maybe he thought death was funny, too.
Anakin's own blade sang blue as it slashed through thewindowandhe
dived through the gap. He rolled to his feet among a litterofbodiesand
sprinted through a shattered dooralongthesmallprivatecorridorand
through a doorway that flashed and flared with energy-scatter.
Anakin skidded to a stop.
Within the public office of theSupremeChancelloroftheGalactic
Republic, a last Jedi Master battled alone, blade-to-blade, against a living
shadow.
Sinking into Vaapad, Mace Windu fought for his life.
More than his life: each whirl of blade and whipcrack of lightningwas
a strike in defense of democracy, of justice and peace,oftherightsof
ordinary beings to live their own lives in their own ways.
He was fighting for the Republic that he loved.
Vaapad, the seventh form of lightsaber combat, takes itsnamefroma
notoriously dangerous predator native to themoonsofSarapin:avaapad
attacks its prey with whipping strikes ofitsblindinglyfasttentacles.
Most have at least seven. It is not uncommon for them tohaveasmanyas
twelve; the largest ever killed had twenty-three. With a vaapad,onenever
knew how many tentacles it had until it was dead:theymovetoofastto
count. Almost too fast to see. So did Mace's blade.
Vaapad is as aggressive and powerful as itsnamesake,butitspower
comes at great risk: immersion in Vaapad opens the gates that restrain one's
inner darkness. To use Vaapad, a Jedi must allow himself to enjoy the fight;
he must give himself over to the thrill ofbattle.Therushofwinning.
Vaapad is a path that leads through the penumbra of the dark side.
Mace Windu created this style, and he was its only living master.
This was Vaapad's ultimate test.
Anakin blinked and rubbed his eyes again. Maybehewasstillabit
flash-blind-the Korun Master seemed to be fading in andoutofexistence,
half swallowed by a thickening black haze in which danced ameter-longbar
of sunfire. Mace pressed back the darkness with a relentlessstraight-ahead
march; his own blade, that distinctive amethystblazethathadbeenthe
final sight of so many evil beings across the galaxy, madeahazeofits
own: an oblate sphere of purple fire within which there seemed to bedozens
of swords slashing in all directions at once.
The shadow he fought, that blur of speed-could that be Palpatine?
Their blades flared and flashed, crashing together with bursts of fire,
weaving nets of killing energy in exchanges so fast thatAnakincouldnot
truly see them-
But he could feel them in the Force.
The Force itself roiled and burst and crashed around them, boiling with
power and lightspeed ricochets of lethal intent.
And it was darkening.
Anakin could feelhowtheForcefedupontheshadow'smurderous
exaltation; he could feel fury spray into the Forcethoughsomepoisonous
abscess had crested in both their hearts.
There was no Jedi restraint here.
Mace Windu was cutting loose.
Mace was deep in it now: submerged in Vaapad, swallowed byit,heno
longer truly existed as an independent being.
Vaapad is a channel for darkness, and that darkness flowedbothways.
He accepted the furious speed of the Sith Lord, drew the shadow'srageand
power into his inmost center-
And let it fountain out again.
He reflected the fury upon itssourceasalightsaberredirectsa
blaster bolt.
There was a time when Mace Windu had fearedthepowerofthedark;
there was a time when he had feared the darkness in himself. ButtheClone
Wars had given him a gift of understanding: on a world called Haruun Kal, he
had faced his darkness and had learned that the power of darkness is notto
be feared.
He had learned that it is fear that gives the darkness power.
He was not afraid. The darkness had no power over him. But-
Neither did he have power over it.
Vaapad made himanopenchannel,halfofasuperconductingloop
completed by the shadow; they became a standing wave of battle that expanded
into every cubic centimeter of the Chancellor's office. There wasnoscrap
of carpet nor shred of chair that might not at anyseconddisintegratein
flares of red orpurple;lampstandsbecamebriefshields,slicedinto
segments that whirled through the air; couches became terrain to beclimbed
for advantage or overleapt in retreat. But there was still only the cycle of
power, the endless loop, nowoundtakenoneitherside,noteventhe
possibility of fatigue.
Impasse.
Which might have gone on forever, if Vaapad were Mace's only gift.
The fighting was effortless for him now; helethisbodyhandleit
without the intervention of his mind. While hisbladespunandcrackled,
while his feet slid and his weightshiftedandhisshouldersturnedin
precise curves of their own direction, his mind slid alongthecircuitof
dark power, tracing it back to its limitless source.
Feeling for its shatterpoint.
He found a knot of fault lines in the shadow'sfuture;hechosethe
largest fracture and followed it back to the here and the now-
And it ledhim,astonishingly,toamanstandingfrozeninthe
slashed-open doorway. Mace had no need to look; the presenceintheForce
wasfamiliar,andwasasupliftingassunlightbreakingthrougha
thunderhead.
The chosen one was here.
Mace disengaged from the shadow's blade and leapt forthewindow;he
slashed away the transparisteel with a single flourish.
His instant's distraction cost him: a dark surge oftheForcenearly
blew him right out of the gap he had just cut. Only adesperateForce-push
of his own altered his path enough that he slammed into a stanchioninstead
of plunging half a kilometer from the ledge outside. He bounced off andthe
Force cleared his head and once again he gave himself to Vaapad.
He could feel the end of this battle approaching, and so could the blur
of Sith he faced; in the Force, the shadow hadbecomeapulsaroffear.
Easily, almost effortlessly, he turned the shadow's fear into aweapon:he
angled the battle to bring them both out onto the window ledge.
Out in the wind. Out with the lightning. Out onarain-slickedledge
above a half-kilometer drop.
Out where the shadow's fear made it hesitate. Outwheretheshadow's
fear turned some of its Force-powered speed into a Force-powered grip on the
slippery permacrete.
Out where Mace could flick his blade in one precise arc andslashthe
shadow's lightsaber in half.
One piece flipped backinthroughthecut-openwindow.Theother
tumbled from opening fingers, bounced on the ledge,andfellthroughthe
rain toward the distant alleys below.
Now the shadow was only Palpatine:oldandshrunken,thinninghair
bleached white by time and care, face lined with exhaustion.
"For all your power, you are no Jedi. All you are, my lord," Macesaid
evenly, staring past his blade, "is under arrest."
"Do you see, Anakin? Do you?" Palpatine'svoiceonceagainhadthe
broken cadence of a frightened old man's. "Didn't I warn you of the Jedi and
their treason?"
"Save your twisted words, my lord. There are no politicianshere.The
Sith will never regain control of the Republic.It'sover.You'velost."
Mace leveled his blade. "You lost for the same reason the Sith alwayslose:
defeated by your own fear."
Palpatine lifted his head.
His eyes smoked with hate.
"Fool," he said.
He lifted his arms, his robes of office spreadingwideintoraptor's
wings, his hands hooking into talons.
"Fool!" His voice was a shout of thunder. "Do you thinkthefearyou
feel is mine?"
Lightingblastedthecloudsabove,andlightningblastedfrom
Palpatine's hands, and Mace didn't have time tocomprehendwhatPalpatine
was talking about; he had time only to slip back into Vaapad andanglehis
blade to catch the forking arcs of pure, dazzling hatred that clawedtoward
him.
Because Vaapad is more than a fighting style. It is a state of mind:a
channel for darkness. Power passed into him and out againwithouttouching
him.
And the circuit completed itself: the lightning reflected back to its source.
Palpatine staggered, snarling, but the blisteringenergythatloured
from his hands only intensified.
He fed the power with his pain.
"Anakin!" Mace called. His voice sounded distant, blurred,; if it came
from the bottom of a well. "Anakin, help me! This is your chance!"
He felt Anakin's leap from the office floortotheledge,felthis
approach behind-
And Palpatine was not afraid. Mace could feel it: he wasn't worriedat
all. "Destroy this traitor," the Chancellor said, his voice raised averthe
howl of writhing energy that joined his hands toMace'sblade."Thiswas
never an arrest. It's an assassination!"
That was when Mace finally understood. He hadit.Thekeytofinal
victory. Palpatine's shatterpoint. The absolute shatter-point of the Sith.
The shatterpoint of the dark side itself.
Mace thought, blankly astonished, Palpatine trusts Anakin Skywalker...
Now Anakin was at Mace's shoulder. Palpatinestillmadenomoveto
defend himself from Skywalker; instead he ramped up thelightningbursting
from his hands, bending the fountain of Mace's blade back towardtheKorun
Master's face.
Palpatine's eyes glowed with power, casting a yellow glare thatburned
back the rain from around them. "He is a traitor, Anakin. Destroy him."
"You're the chosen one, Anakin," Mace said, his voice goingthinwith
strain. This was beyond Vaapad; he had no strength left to fight against his
own blade. "Take him. It's your destiny."
Skywalker echoed him faintly. "Destiny..."
"Helpme!Ican'tholdonanylonger!"Theyellowglarefrom
Palpatine's eyes spread outward through his flesh. His skin flowed like oil,
as though the muscle beneath was burning away, as though even thebonesof
his skull were softening, were bending and bulging, deforming from theheat
and pressure of his electric hatred. "He iskillingme,Anakin-!Please,
Anaaahhh-"
Mace's blade bent so close to his face that he waschokingonozone.
"Anakin, he's too strong for me-"
"Ahhh-" Palpatine's roar above above theendlessblastoflightning
became a fading moan of despair.
The lightning swallowed itself, leaving only the nightandtherain,
and an old man crumpled to his knees on a slippery ledge.
"I... can't. I give up. I... I am too weak, in the end. Too old,and
too weak. Don't kill me, Master Jedi. Please. I surrender."
Victory flooded through Mace's aching body. He lifted hisblade."You
Sith disease-"
" Wait-" Skywalker seized his lightsaber arm withdesperatestrength.
"Don't kill him-you can't just kill him, Master-"
"Yes, I can," Mace said, grim and certain. "I have to."
"You came to arrest him. He has to stand trial-"
"A trial would be a joke. He controls the courts. He controls the Senate-"
"So are you going to kill all them, too? Like he said you would?"
Mace yanked his arm free. "He's too dangerous to be left alive. Ifyou
could have taken Dooku alive, would you have?"
Skywalker's face swept itself clean of emotion. "That was different-"
Mace turned toward the cringing, beaten Sith Lord. "You can explain the
difference after he's dead."
He raised his lightsaber.
"I need him alive!" Skywalker shouted. "I need him to save Padme!"
Mace thought blankly, Why? And moved his lightsaber towardthefallen
Chancellor.
Before he could follow through on his stroke,asuddenarcofblue
plasma sheared throughhiswristandhishandtumbledawaywithhis
lightsaber still in it and Palpatine roared back to his feetandlightning
speared from the Sith Lord's hands and without his blade tocatchit,the
power of Palpatine's hate struck him full-on.
He had been so intentonPalpatine'sshatterpointthathe'dnever
thought to look for Anakin's.
Dark lightning blasted away his universe. He fell forever.
Anakin Skywalker knelt in the rain.
He was looking at a hand. The hand had brownskin.Thehandhelda
lightsaber. The hand had a charred oval of tissue where it should havebeen
attached to an arm.
"What have I done?"
Was it his voice? It must have been. Because it was his question.
"What have I done?"
Another hand, awarmandhumanhand,laiditselfsoftlyonhis
shoulder.
"You're following your destiny, Anakin," said a familiar gentlevoice.
"The Jedi are traitors. You saved the Republic from their treachery. You can
see that, can't you?"
"You were right," Anakin heard himself saying. "Why didn't I know?"
"You couldn't have. Theycloakedthemselvesindeception,myboy.
Because they feared your power, they could never trust you."
Anakin stared at the hand, but he no longer saw it.
"Obi-Wan-Obi-Wan trusts me..."
"Not enough to tell you of their plot."
Treason echoed in his memory.
...this is not an assignment for the record...
That warm and human hand gave his shoulder a warm and human squeeze. "I
do not fear your power, Anakin, I embrace it. You are thegreatestofthe
Jedi. You can be the greatest of the Sith. I believe that, Anakin. I believe
in you. I trust you. I trust you. I trust you."
Anakin looked from the dead hand on the ledge to the living one onhis
shoulder, then up to the face of the man who stood above him,andwhathe
saw there choked him like an invisible fist crushing his throat.
The hand on his shoulder was human.
The face... wasn't.
The eyes were a cold and feral yellow, and they gleamed like those of a
predator lurking beyond a fringe of firelight; the bone aroundthoseferal
eyes had swollen and melted and flowed like durasteel spilled from afusion
smelter, and the flesh that blanketed it had gone corpse-gray and coarseas
rotten synthplast.
Stunned with horror, stunned with revulsion, Anakin could only stare at
the creature. At the shadow.
Looking into the face of the darkness, he saw his future.
"Now come inside," the darkness said.
After a moment, he did.
Anakin stood just within the office. Motionless.
Palpatine examined the damage to his face in a broadexpanseofwall
mirror. Anakin couldn't tell if his expression mightberevulsion,orif
this were merely thenewshapeofhisfeatures.Palpatineliftedone
tentative hand to the misshapen horror that he now saw in themirror,then
simply shrugged.
"Andsothemaskbecomestheman,"hesighedwithahintof
philosophical melancholy. "I shall miss the face of Palpatine, I think;but
for our purpose, the face of Sidious will serve. Yes, it will serve."
He gestured, and a hidden compartment opened intheoffice'sceiling
above his desk. A voluminous robe of heavyblack-on-blackbrocadefloated
downward from it; Anakin felt the current in the Force that carried the robe
to Palpatine's hand.
He remembered playing a Force game with a shuura fruit, sittingacross
a long table from Padme in the retreat by the lake on Naboo.Heremembered
telling her how grumpy Obi-WanwouldbetoseehimusetheForceso
casually.
Palpatine seemed to catch his thought; he gave a yellow sidelong glance
as the robe settled onto his shoulders.
"You must learn to cast off the petty restraintsthattheJedihave
tried to place upon your power," he said. "Anakin, it's time. I need youto
help me restore order to the galaxy."
Anakin didn't respond.
Sidious said, "Join me. Pledge yourself to the Sith. Become my apprentice."
A wave of tingling started at the base ofAnakin'sskullandspread
over his whole body in a slow-motion shockwave.
"I-I can't."
"Of course you can."
Anakin shook his head and found that therestofhimthreatenedto
begin shaking as well. "I-came to save your life,sir.Nottobetraymy
friends-"
Sidious snorted. "What friends?"
Anakin could find no answer.
"And do you think thattaskisfinished,myboy?"Sidiousseated
himself on the corner of the desk, hands foldedinhislap,thewayhe
always had when offering Anakin fatherly advice; the misshapen maskofhis
face made the familiarity of his posture into somethinghorrible."Doyou
think that killing one traitor will end treason? Do you think the Jediwill
ever stop until I am dead?"
Anakin stared at his hands. The left one was shaking. He hid itbehind
him.
"It's them or me, Anakin. Or perhaps I should put it more plainly: It's
them or Padme."
Anakin made his righthand-hisblack-glovedhandofdurasteeland
electrodrivers-into a fist.
"It's just-it's not... easy, that's all. I have-I've been a Jedi for so long-"
Sidious offered an appalling smile. "There is a placewithinyou,my
boy, a place as briskly clean as ice on a mountaintop, cool and remote. Find
that high place, and look down within yourself; breathe that clean, icyair
as you regard your guilt and shame. Do not denythem;observethem.Take
your horror in your hands and look at it. Examine it as a phenomenon.Smell
it. Taste it. Come to know it as only you can, for it is yours,anditis
precious."
As the shadow beside him spoke, its words became true. Fromaremote,
frozen distance that was at the same time more extravagantly, hotly intimate
than he could have ever dreamed, Anakin handled his emotions.Hedissected
them. He reassembled them and pulled them apart again. He still felt them-if
anything, they burned hotter than before-but they no longer had the power to
cloud his mind.
"Youhavefoundit,myboy:Icanfeelyouthere.Thatcold
distance-that mountaintop within yourself-that is the first key to the power
of the Sith."
Anakin opened his eyes and turned his gazefullyuponthegrotesque
features of Darth Sidious.
He didn't even blink.
As he looked upon that mask of corruption, the revulsionhefeltwas
real, and it was powerful, and it was-
Interesting.
Anakin lifted his hand of durasteel and electrodrivers andcuppedit,
staring into its palm as though he held there the fear that had hauntedhis
dreams for his whole life, and it was no larger thanthepieceofshuura
he'd once stolen from Padme's plate.
On the mountain peak within himself, he weighedPadme'slifeagainst
the Jedi Order.
It was no contest.
He said, "Yes."
"Yes to what, my boy?"
"Yes, I want your knowledge."
"Good. Good!"
"I want your power. I want the power to stop death."
"That power only my Master truly achieved, but togetherwewillfind
it. The Force is strong with you, my boy. You can do anything."
"The Jedi betrayed you," Anakin said. "The Jedi betrayed both of us."
"As you say. Are you ready?"
"I am," he said, and meant it. "I give myself to you. Ipledgemyself
to the ways of the Sith. Take me as your apprentice. Teach me. Leadme.Be
my Master."
Sidious raised the hood of his robe and draped it to shadow the ruin of
his face.
"Kneel before me, Anakin Skywalker."
Anakin dropped to one knee. He lowered his head.
"It is your will to join your destiny forever with the Order of the Sith Lords?"
There was no hesitation. "Yes."
Darth Sidious laid a pale hand on Anakin's brow. "Then it is done.You
are now one with the Order of the Dark Lords oftheSith.Fromthisday
forward, the truth of you, my apprentice, now and forevermore, will be Darth..."
A pause; a questioning in the Force-
An answer, dark as the gap between galaxies-
He heard Sidious say it: his new name.
Vader.
A pair of syllables that meant him. Vader, he said to himself. Vader.
"Thank you, my Master."
"Every single Jedi, including yourfriendObi-WanKenobihavebeen
revealed as enemies of the Republic now. You understand that, don't you?"
"Yes, my Master."
"The Jedi are relentless. If they are not destroyed to the lastbeing,
there will be civil war without end. To sterilize the JediTemplewillbe
your first task. Do what must be done, Lord Vader."
"I always have, my Master."
"Do not hesitate. Show no mercy. Leave no living creature behind.Only
then will you be strong enough with the dark side to save Padme."
"What of the other Jedi?"
"Leave them to me. After you have finished at the Temple,yoursecond
task willbetheSeparatistleadership,intheir'secretbunker'on
Mustafar. When you have killed them all, the Sith will rule the galaxyonce
more, and we shall have peace. Forever.
"Rise, Darth Vader."
The Sith Lord who once had been a JediherocalledAnakinSkywalker
stood, drawing himself up to his full height, but he looked not outward upon
his new Master, nor upon the planet-city beyond, noroutintothegalaxy
that they would soon rule. He instead turned his gazeinward:heunlocked
the furnace gate within his heart and stepped forth to regard with neweyes
the cold freezing dread of the dead-star dragon that had haunted his life.
I am Darth Vader, he said within himself.
The dragon triedagaintowhisperoffailure,andweakness,and
inevitable death, but with one hand the Sith Lord caughtit,crushedaway
its voice; it tried to rise then, to coil and rear and strike, but theSith
Lord laid his otherhanduponitandbrokeitspowerwithasingle
effortless twist.
I am Darth Vader, he repeated as he ground the dragon's corpse todust
beneath his mental heel, as he watched the dragon's dust andashesscatter
before the blast from his furnace heart, and you-
You are nothing at all.
He had become, finally, what they all called him.
The Hero With No Fear.
They got Burton suits, ha you think it's funny. Turning rebellion into money
Isto je bitno obratiti pozornost da mu je ovaj rekao da je uhapšen. Zbog toga Palpy baci lightning na njega, da ga "uvjeri" da ga pokuša ubiti tako da bi ga Anakin spasio.
Ali ako ju je Lucas potvrdio, onda je sve u redu.
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