Episode Four: The Last of the Spirits
The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. When it came, Sidious bent down upon his knee; for in the very air through which the Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery.
It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand that held fast to the knob of a cane. It was this feature alone that separated him from the darkness by which it was surrounded.
He felt that it was powerful and stately when it came beside him, and that its mysterious presence filled him with a solemn dread, accompanied by the wonderment that this stranger was someone he knew quite well. But he could know no more, for the Spirit neither spoke nor moved.
"I am in the presence of the Ghost of Life Day Yet to Come, I presume?" said Sidious.
The Spirit answered not, but pointed onward with its hand.
"You are about to show me visions of things that have not yet happened, but will happen if I proceed in my present course," Sidious tried again. "Is that so, Spirit.
The figure nodded, but that was the only answer he was given.
Although well used to ghostly company by this time- and even more used to familiar faces taking spectral form- Sidious feared the silent shape in such a fashion that was as much a stranger to him as the intimate connection he felt with the figure was natural, and he found that he could hardly force his legs to comply when he prepared to follow it. The Spirit paused a moment, as if observing Sidious's assessments, and giving him time to recover.
But Sidious was all the worse for this. It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud, there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, and in that instant he yearned for nothing more than to see its face, to discover which figure from his life had taken ghostly form upon Plagueis's calling and was now intent upon leading him through yet another night of visions and wonderment.
"Ghost of the Future!" he exclaimed, "I fear you more than any specter I have seen. As such, I welcome your company all the more. And I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to make the most out of the gifts given to me by the Force, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a most open mind." He paused. "Will you speak to me?"
It gave him no reply. The hand was pointed straight before them.
"So be it," said Sidious.
The Phantom moved away in the direction it had come. Sidious followed in its shadow.
To say that they entered the city would, in a sense, prove to be false, for the city seemed to spring upon them, and encompass them of its own act. But there they were, in the heart of it. Sidious blinked as his eyes adjusted to the new light, which was darker than before. All about him people were singing, cheering, and dancing with enthusiasm, the likes of which he had never seen an equal. He opened his mouth to speak, but his voice was drowned out by the sounds of thunder and when he looked up he saw that the night was filled with a kaleidoscope of light. Fireworks.
The Spirit stopped beside one little knot of men. Observing that the hand was pointed to them, Sidious advanced to listen to their talk.
"No," said a large man with monstrous stomach, "I don't know much about it, either way. I only know that he's dead and the galaxy is better off for it."
"Here, here," complied a human dressed in dirty clothes.
"Pathetic, really," inputted another, pulling a rag out from his pocket and wiping his face. "I believe the old man thought he'd never die. But death doesn't take bribes. No matter how much power you have."
"God knows we are thankful for that," the first man said.
"What do you suppose will happen with his concubines?" asked the third man, his face turning red as a great smile broke across his face.
"I haven't heard," replied the second. "He hasn't left them to me. That's all I know."
This pleasantry was received with a general laugh and a few bumping elbows.
"Are they even going to have a funeral," said the same speaker; "for the life of me I can't imagine anyone who would want to go. Well, except maybe Isard that is."
The group exchanged crude looks.
"Perhaps Iceheart will need comforting during this terrible time of loss," said the obese man. "I've been told I look hideous and disgusting and saggy by my wife on several occasions. I'm just her type!"
Another laugh.
"Well, I am the most disinterested among you, after all," said the third speaker, "for I am fairly young and I have no interest in the distraught seconds of a corroded toad. However, I might attend the funeral if there was one. I feel rather close to His Majesty; for I used to let my dog piss on his statue whenever we walked past. Bye, bye now, supper is calling!"
Speakers and listeners departed, and mixed in with the celebration crowd. Isard? Surely they could not mean Ysanne. She was such a young girl and he had barely paid her a second glance after the first day she arrived at work with her father. Sidious looked towards the Spirit for an explanation.
The Phantom glided on into the street. Sidious stood for a moment watching as the figure turned back to face him, unmoving from its position a few yards away. It was then that Sidious heard the crack of crumbling rock and deafening uproar of cheers behind him. He turned to see what the fuss was about, but was caught off guard as he was greeted with a face that he saw to be his own, made of stone, and plummeting down upon him. He sprang back and watched along with the others, half full of confusion, half of anger, as the form of his body collided with the ground, and the head separated from the body.
Now a lesser man, one who struggles with denial or who is incapable of facing his worst fears with dignity and awareness, would have looked to the Phantom for answers. But Sidious what not such a man and, as such, he knew exactly what game was being played. All he was unsure of was how precisely he was to proceed.
Quiet and dark, beside him stood the Phantom, with its outstretched hand. With a new sense of awareness, Sidious roused himself from his frozen stance and he fancied from the turn of the hand, and its situation in reference to himself, that the unseen eyes were looking at him keenly. It made him shudder, and feel very cold.
"Remove me from this place, Spirit. Show me what led to this moment."
They left the busy scene, and, in an instant, the two had left Coruscant all together. Sidious knew not where they were, but he was taken aback by an overwhelming surge of heat and surmised that they were on the shore of a lake of fire. Mustafar, perhaps?
Sidious turned to the Spirit, curious. The Phantom pointed to the edge of the lava where a limbless, lifeless, skinless, charred creature lay. Sidious- despite the surplus of gore he had seen throughout his many years- could have been sick. Upon forcing himself to observe the corpse more closely, he noticed that it did, in fact, have one limb; a mechanical one in place of his right arm and in that moment he knew- it was Anakin Skywalker.
But how could this be? He had not foreseen the death of his future apprentice. Contrariwise, he had foreseen that Skywalker would be the catalyst of the Sith rising to once more rule the galaxy. Skywalker's death was out of the question. He could not allow that to happen. He refused to let it happen. More so if such a great feeling of loss would lead to his own demise.
"Tell me: is there a way to prevent this fate?"
It was not as though he truly had expected an answer; the question was more posed to his own person. Something that he would ponder upon a solution for, seeing as this was unacceptable.
"Spirit, if there is any horror more devastating than this, if there be any other vision more horrifying that you wish for me to see in an effort to deter me from my present course, which would help me in my quest at the fulfillment of the Plan then reveal it now."
The Phantom was quick to appease. Shadows engulfed them, and Sidious and the Phantom came into the presence of a man, whom Sidious recognized to be Sate Pestage, surrounded by guards, and kneeling before a woman whom Sidious also knew to be Ysanne Isard- albeit a much older version.
"You sought to betray the Empire, did you Pestage?"
"Believe me, Your Majesty-"
"Believe you? Well, that seems a bit of a reach. Did you or did you not, to save your own pathetic life, seek to turn over Coruscant to the New Republic?" These last words she spoke as if they left a foul taste in her mouth.
"Yes," Pestage said, bowing his head.
"I suppose if you were to argue with me you would argue such things as 'Every person has a right to take care of themselves. After all, he always did."
"That's true, indeed," said the stricken vizier, "No man more so."
"Why then, do you stand staring as if you are afraid; as if you have committed some grievous mistake?"
"I do not know, Your Majesty."
"That much," Isard said, "is obvious. Perhaps if he had wanted to simply give up his empire, he would have done so during the course of his natural life. And if he had, someone, other than you, I presume, would have seen to it when he was struck with Death, instead of fighting to keep it intact as it fell into shambles as it so threatens to do now."
"Truer words were never spoken, Your Highness," said Pestage, who understood the danger he was in, fought to keep all bitterness and sarcasm from his voice. "It was a grave mistake on my part. Calling you my Master is a judgment on me, as well as him."
"Ah, do not feel comfortable just yet, worm. A heavier judgment has yet to pass," replied Isard, with a sneer; "and I assure you, to speak quite plainly, fewer things will give me more pleasure than to watch your corpse rot."
Sidious watched as his aid was led away, before turning his eyes back on the woman who sat upon the throne. A woman! To think, stripped of his power and replaced by a woman! He would have preferred Pestage's fate to one as terrible as that.
"Spirit, I am no fool. The things you show me are occurrences that shall happen after my death, should I proceed in my current course, is that not true?"
The Phantom gave no reply.
"Very well. Should I be defeated," Sidious said, unwilling to utter the word 'killed'; "should the Jedi return after I achieve my power, should the Republic rise again, and should my quest to control Skywalker fail, what is the place where it will happen. Where will I… die?"
The Spirit pointed and their location changed.
A throne room. Here, then, the manner of his death he had now to learn would be performed. It was a worthy place he decided, if such a thing as his death were indeed possible.
The Spirit stood along a bridge and pointed down into the depths of the reactor shaft. Sidious advanced towards him, uneasy. The Phantom was exactly as it had been, but he dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape.
"Before I draw nearer to that which you point," said Sidious, "Is that which you are about to show me shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be?"
Still the Ghost pointed downward into the abyss by which it stood.
"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, that much is clear," said Sidious. "But if the courses they travel be departed from, if they grow wiser and change their means, the ends will change as well, is that not correct? Say that is what you show me."
The Spirit was as immovable as ever.
Sidious paused for a moment, and then stepped forward, intent on following the Sprit's government. As he did so a cry of agony sounded that was so sudden and so unexpected that Sidious started and had to grab the railing to keep from falling down the shaft below.
He cast his gaze in the direction from whence the scream came and as he did the Spirit stepped from his position beside him, raising its hands as forks of Sith lightening connected to Ghostly fingertips.
On the ground there lay a boy, young in age, which greatly resembled the current form of Anakin Skywalker; so much so that they could be related. Did Anakin have a brother?
Another torrent of lightening from the Spirit and the boy's body doubled in on itself as the flesh of his face began to smoke.
The hood of the Spirit began to move, as if it were inclining its head. Between them stood a tall, imposing figure, of which Sidious was unsure whether it be a man or a machine. The slow hiss that it produced reminded him of one other. Darth Plagueis. Is it possible that his purposes were sinister after all?
"Father, please, help me!" cried the young man on the ground.
Father. He had a child? Inconceivable; he would not allow it.
But wait! Could it be that this was the son of Skywalker? He looked again to the towering figure between the Spirit and the Son, his heart feeling with dread. Anakin survived and so did his son.
"Spirit! Tell me, will this boy be my undoing? Is this what was hoped that I would yield from these visions?"
At once the lightening ceased; the Spirit pointed from the boy to him, and back again. Sidious stepped forward, a chilling affirmation took hold.
"Spirit," Sidious said again. "If you will have it, let me look upon your face."
The Phantom remained unmoved.
"Spirit," Sidious quoted, moving to stand directly in the middle of the boy and the Ghost. "Please, show me your face."
Again, the Spirit made no reply. Sidious's hands trembled and he balled them into fists to hide a weakness that he knew those keen, haunting eyes had already seen. When he spoke, he did so with considerably less conviction than he had intended. "Show me your face."
For a moment, the Spirit remained motionless. Then, slowly, the shadows of its arms rose, finding their way to the shroud that shielded its form. Sidious heard a noise like a thousand tormented whispers as the Phantom pulled back the black fabric.
Sidious staggered back, his breath caught in his throat. Once again, I must remark that a lesser man would have been horrified, repulsed, and shattered if the face that had greeted him, his own face, mind you, were as deformed, scarred, and mangled as the one he had just born witness to at his own command. And Once again I must remark that it is a fine thing, indeed, that Sidious was no such man. The only thing that sourced through his mind, in a place where dread should have been was an overwhelming feeling of success as he recalled a memory of a night by a dying fire, once thought long forgotten.
"Will I eventually be physically transformed?"
"Into some aged, pale-skinned, raspy voiced, yellow-eyed monster, you mean. Such as the one before you." Plagueis gestured himself then lowered himself to the ground. "… I can't say. Know this, though, Sidious, that the power of the dark side does not debilitate the practitioner as much as it debilitates those who lack it." He grinned with evil purpose. "The power of the dark side is an illness no true Sith would wish to be cured of."
So he had achieved the power after all!
"Spirit," Sidious said, "what of these happenings would I seek to change? What have I not gained that I have ever strived for? What could I have possibly overlooked?" He let out a short laugh. "Were all these ghostly visitations for nothing!?"
The Spirit covered its face and pointed through Sidious to the boy beyond.
"No, Spirit! No, no!"
Pain engulfed him and his own screams mingled with the boys. Then his feet left the ground and a new sort of pain gripped his limbs as the towering figure that was once Anakin Skywalker held him high overhead. Then, in a moment of terror he thought beneath him moments ago, he was thrown over the railing above the reactor shaft and plummeted down to the death that awaited him, helpless to either slow his fall or to save himself.
That was when he caught hold of the outstretched hand that pulled him up just meters from safety. Above him was his savior, the Phantom, silent and watchful.
"Spirit!" he cried, "hear me! I understand! Please, believe that I shall not be the man I would have been if not for this vision! Why show me this, why force me to experience this, if I am past all hope?"
For the first time the hand appeared to shake.
"Good Spirit," he pursued, as tighter he clung to it: "Your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have sown me, by an altered life!"
The kind hand trembled.
"I will honor these lessons in my very soul, and keep this reminder with me year after year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!"
The Phantom inclined his head and then the form of his hand vanished and Sidious was falling once again. Faster and faster and faster still he fell, into the waiting abyss that was his bedroom.