by Cavan Scott
And now they need fresh blood.
PRIESTESS:
This planet—tt-tt-tt—it is a nexus point. We have foreseen it. The source—tt-tt—of all change.
DOOKU:
What change?
PRIESTESS:
We do not know. Your blood will open our eyes—tt-tt-tt—Every future laid bare.
SIFO-DYAS:
And is there a future where we survive?
The priestess flies down to her sisters.
PRIESTESS:
The ritual must begin.
SIFO-DYAS:
She didn’t answer my question. Did anyone else notice that?
DOOKU:
They’ve taken our lightsabers.
LENE:
We still have the Force.
SIFO-DYAS:
Are you sure about that? My head feels like it’s full of wampa wool.
LENE:
(WITH EFFORT AS SHE TRIES TO USE THE FORCE) It has to be this moss. Dampening our abilities.
The moss starts to slide over them.
DOOKU:
And it’s on the move.
SIFO-DYAS:
(SPITTING) I don’t think I can take being smothered again.
LENE:
I don’t think you have much choice.
PRIESTESS:
Give yourself willingly. Let the moss absorb you.
LENE:
Resist it.
SIFO-DYAS:
I can’t.
LENE:
The Force is with us. Repeat the mantra. The Force is with us.
DOOKU & SIFO-DYAS:
The Force is with us. The Force is with us.
Lene joins in.
DOOKU, SIFO-DYAS, & LENE:
The Force is with us. The Force is with us.
The Jedi struggle as the moss covers them, repeating the mantra, gagging as their mouths are flooded.
PRIESTESS:
You will be consumed so all futures will be ours—tt-tt-tt—Everything that may come to pass.
DOOKU: (NARRATION)
I find it hard, even now, to describe what I saw. Was this what Sifo-Dyas endured every time he was visited by days to come? I saw the future. Futures. Every prospect. Every possibility. And all of them a living nightmare.
SCENE 68. INT. THE VISIONSCAPE.
Atmosphere: Nightmarish images flooding through Dooku’s mind. Behind it all we can hear the Presagers’ chant, the visions folding over one another, becoming more crazed, snatches of dialogue from the films alongside things we haven’t heard before.
DOOKU: (REVERB)
What is this? (CALLING OUT) Master Kostana? Lene? Can you hear me?
Dooku sees a battle, turbolasers firing. Explosions. The tramp of troopers’ boots. Starfighters roaring above.
DOOKU: (NARRATION)
I saw battles. So many battles. The future bleeding out on a thousand worlds.
SIFO-DYAS: (DISTORTED)
(SCREAMS)
DOOKU: (REVERB)
(CALLING OUT) Sifo-Dyas!
The vision shifts to the Temple chamber.
DOOKU: (NARRATION)
And faces. Faces I knew, faces that were new to me. All of them changed from the way they should be…
YODA: (DISTORTED)
Wrong this is.
GRETZ DROOM: (DISTORTED)
We have no choice. The Senate has been corrupted. The Jedi must take control.
YODA:
Control?
We shift to the Senate Building. Jedi boots marching forward.
CHANCELLOR PALPATINE: (DISTORTED)
Master Jedi. What is the meaning of this?
GRETZ: (DISTORTED)
Our destiny.
Gretz Droom kills Palpatine with a lightsaber thrust, the vision of the Senate Building whizzes past Dooku as he hears Droom say…
GRETZ: (DISTORTED)
The rule of the Jedi has begun.
DOOKU: (NARRATION)
The Jedi as conquerors. It couldn’t happen. Couldn’t be. There had to be a different way. And there was…
The sounds of a clone wars battle.
CLONE COMMANDO:
One-Eighty-Fourth Attack Battalion, move out.
Blasterfire.
BATTLE DROID:
Roger Roger.
More clone war battles.
JOR AERITH:
Commander Crane?
CLONE COMMANDER:
Order 66 must be executed.
Blaster shots are fired, deflected by Aerith’s lightsaber.
JOR:
No! Don’t!
The shots find their target.
JOR:
(SCREAMS)
DOOKU: (NARRATION)
The futures were colliding, overlapping, my mind on fire.
There’s the scream of a tie fighter swooping by, leading into a space battle, the familiar scream of tie fighters against X-wings.
DARTH SKRYE: (FEMALE)
The Cauldron opens.
The sound of a planet tearing in two.
DARTH SKRYE:
The Sith reborn.
A massive explosion.
DOOKU: (NARRATION)
Only one voice was true…
LENE: (DISTORTED)
(CALLING) Dooku…
DOOKU: (REVERB)
Lene?
LENE: (DISTORTED)
I’ve lost Sifo…
Lightsabers clash.
DOOKU: (REVERB)
Lene. Where are you?
LENE: (DISTORTED)
It’s up to you…Dooku.
As she says his name, we hear the roar of the Tirra’Taka and become aware of a name chanted over and over by a crowd.
CROWD:
Doo-ku! Doo-ku! Doo-ku! Doo-ku!
DOOKU: (REVERB)
What?
The chanting continues behind the sound of battles and explosions. And then there is another sound—the crackle of Force lightning.
DARTH SIDIOUS:
I have chosen you, my apprentice.
More Force lightning. It plays out through all this, building in intensity, as does the chant of “Doo-ku, Doo-ku,” the roar of the Tirra’Taka, and the sounds of battle.
DARTH SIDIOUS:
You serve a higher purpose.
QUI-GON:
My only conclusion…
DARTH SIDIOUS:
My purpose.
Everything—including the following increasingly overlapping dialogue—builds to a crazy, overwhelming crescendo like the end of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” Dooku becoming increasingly agitated, in great pain.
QUI-GON:
It was a Sith Lord.
KI-ADI-MUNDI:
The Sith have been extinct for a millennium.
DARTH SKRYE:
The Sith reborn.
KI-ADI-MUNDI:
Extinct.
DARTH SKRYE:
Reborn.
LENE: (DISTORTED)
Dooku!
GRETZ:
The rule of the Jedi.
YODA:
Wrong this is.
LENE: (DISTORTED)
Dooku! Please!
QUI-GON:
(OVERLAPPING) The Sith have returned.
GRETZ:
(OVERLAPPING) Must take control.
YODA:
(OVERLAPPING) Wrong this is…
YODA #2:
(OVERLAPPING) Rig
ht.
YODA:
(OVERLAPPING) The Jedi rule…
YODA #2:
(OVERLAPPING) Jedi serve.
DARTH SIDIOUS:
(OVERLAPPING) All is as it should be.
DOOKU: (VISION)
(OVERLAPPING) The future is ours…my Master.
VENTRESS: (VISION)
Master. No.
Force lightning crackles.
VENTRESS: (VISION)
(SCREAMS)
The lightning builds into a storm, everything else swirling around it, and beneath it all, the emperor’s manic laughter.
GRETZ:
(OVERLAPPING) Control…control…control…control…control…
DARTH SKRYE:
(OVERLAPPING) Reborn…Reborn…
QUI-GON:
(OVERLAPPING) Have returned…have returned…have returned…have—
And beneath the crescendo, Dooku screams in pain and fury.
DOOKU:
(PRIMAL SCREAM)
CUTTING STRAIGHT TO:
SCENE 69. INT. CAVERN OF THE PRESAGERS.
Dooku’s scream dies in his throat like a man waking from a nightmare. He breathes hard as he finds himself back in the cavern. All is quiet. The chanting has stopped. Only a few of the torches are still burning, the others having gone out.
Force lightning crackles over the rocks.
LENE:
(COMING AROUND) Dooku? How did we get down?
DOOKU:
(SHAKEN) I don’t know.
She pushes herself up.
LENE:
(DISGUSTED) What’s that smell?
DOOKU:
(NOT SHOCKED) The Presagers.
LENE:
They’re…They’ve been burned to a crisp. But how…?
Dooku turns.
DOOKU:
(SCARED) Master…I…
LENE:
Dooku. Your hands.
DOOKU: (NARRATION)
I looked down at the indigo light crackling around my fingers…
DOOKU:
In my vision. I saw…lightning, coursing through bodies…
LENE:
Dooku, you’re going to be all right…
DOOKU:
It’s a mark of the dark side.
LENE:
Not always.
The lightning surges as his anger flares.
DOOKU:
Don’t lie to me!
LENE:
Tell me what you saw.
DOOKU:
So many things.
LENE:
Different futures collapsing in on one another? The Jedi storming the Senate?
DOOKU:
Yes. And weapons…terrible weapons…
LENE:
The things you saw. They’re not certainties. They’re only possibilities.
DOOKU:
I saw the Sith.
LENE:
Things we can prevent.
DOOKU:
But the lightning…
LENE:
Your mind locked on to something.
DOOKU:
My future?
LENE:
No. Definitely not.
DOOKU:
But the dark side…
LENE:
Runs through this place like a seam. Dooku, it used you. Not the other way around. It latched on to your concern, for us, twisting it, weaponizing it. This wasn’t you, Dooku. The Presagers brought it upon themselves.
More lightning crackles.
DOOKU:
I saw it, dancing from my fingertips…There was a woman. With bone-white skin.
LENE:
It was just a vision. And visions fade. We’ll get away from this place and purge the memories, I promise.
SIFO-DYAS:
(GROANS, HIGHLY DISTRESSED)
DOOKU:
Sifo-Dyas!
DOOKU: (NARRATION)
I ran to Sifo-Dyas. He was gripped by a seizure, his face contorted in silent agony.
DOOKU:
What’s happening?
LENE:
Sifo. Remember your training. Sifo.
DOOKU:
He can’t hear you.
LENE:
Then we need to make him.
SIFO-DYAS:
(DELIRIOUS) Can’t be happening. Can’t be happening.
LENE:
It’s no good. We need to get him to the Truthseeker.
DOOKU:
But I—
LENE:
(FIRMLY) But nothing. Look at your hands, Dooku.
DOOKU:
The lightning. It’s gone.
LENE:
It was never there. But Sifo-Dyas is real and needs your help. Your friend, Dooku. Will you help him?
DOOKU:
Yes. Of course I will.
LENE:
We’re going to have to carry him. That’s it. Carefully.
SCENE 70. EXT. SPACE. ABOVE ASUSTO.
The Truthseeker flies by.
SCENE 71. INT. THE TRUTHSEEKER.
Sifo-Dyas is writhing on a bunk.
DOOKU: (NARRATION)
Sifo-Dyas’s torment continued long after we’d left the planet’s atmosphere.
SIFO-DYAS:
(AS IF HAVING A NIGHTMARE) No…You can’t…It cannot be.
DOOKU:
Sifo. Listen to me. You’re safe. You’re safe.
Lene runs in.
LENE:
How is he?
DOOKU:
The same. I can’t get through to him.
LENE:
He’s lost in the visions.
She kneels beside him, gripping Sifo-Dyas’s arms.
LENE:
(FIRMLY) Padawan. That is enough. You need to come back to me. The Force is strong in you. Do you hear? The Force is strong.
SIFO-DYAS:
Master?
LENE:
I’m here.
SIFO-DYAS:
Master…There were soldiers…hundreds of thousands of soldiers. So much blood…washing over me, washing over us all.
LENE:
It wasn’t real. It was the dark side. Nothing more.
SIFO-DYAS:
You didn’t hear the explosions. Didn’t hear the screams.
LENE:
Sifo, do you remember the cleansing ritual I taught you?
SIFO-DYAS:
No.
LENE:
On Rishi. After we uncovered the Hand of Skrye.
SIFO-DYAS:
The Ritual of the Three. Yes. I remember.
LENE:
We need to teach it to Dooku. Do you understand? The dark side washed over him, too. You want to help your friend, don’t you? You want to save him?
SIFO-DYAS:
Yes. Yes, of course I do.
LENE:
Then we must prepare. Can you stand?
SIFO-DYAS:
I think so.
He pushes himself off the bed.
LENE:
Stand in a circle, so we can see one another’s eyes. Look inside yourself. Can you feel the Force within?
DOOKU:
Yes.
LENE:
Describe it.
SIFO-DYAS:
It is…it is cold.
DOOKU:
Dark.
LENE:
Tha
t will change. You have to believe it. Now…
We hear Lene walk to a locker, opening the door.
LENE: (CONT.)
…we need these.
She recovers three rolls of fabric.
DOOKU:
Bandages?
LENE:
The Balm of the Luminous. Do you see? Their words are woven into the gauze. As we wrap them about our arms, we bind ourselves in the light.
DOOKU:
It…it sounds like witchcraft.
LENE:
It’s a tool, nothing more. A means to find balance. Here.
DOOKU: (NARRATION)
Almost reverentially, she passed both of us a roll of cloth.
LENE:
Starting at the wrist, you wind the fabric up your arm, like this. Do you see?
DOOKU:
Yes.
SIFO-DYAS:
K-keep your palm open and raised toward the stars.
LENE:
That’s right, Sifo. Can you remember the invocation?
SIFO-DYAS:
Yes. Yes, I think so:
“We call upon the Three…”
LENE:
“Light. Dark…”
SIFO-DYAS:
“And Balance true.”
LENE:
“One is no greater than the others.”
SIFO-DYAS:
“Together they unite, restore, center, and renew.”
LENE:
“We walk into the Light. Acknowledge the Dark.”
SIFO-DYAS:
“And find Balance in ourselves…”
LENE:
“For the Force is strong.”
SIFO-DYAS:
“For the Force is strong.”
LENE:
Excellent. Dooku. Are you ready?
DOOKU:
Yes.
DOOKU: (NARRATION, SPEAKING OVER THE INCANTATION)
Together, we repeated the ritual, binding our arms.
As the autopilot sped us back to the Core, I felt the shadows lift, the memory of what had happened, while still fresh, weighing lighter on my mind. On my heart.
ALL THREE TOGETHER: (UNDER NARRATION)
“We call upon the Three.
Light. Dark. And Balance true.
One is no greater than the others.
Together they unite, restore, center, and renew.
We walk into the Light. Acknowledge the Dark. And find Balance in ourselves…
For the Force is strong.
For the Force is strong.”
We hold on the silence for a moment.
LENE:
(CALM) There. Is that better? Look inside yourself again. Describe what you see. What you feel.
SIFO-DYAS:
Warmth.
DOOKU:
Warmth and light.