Disclaimer: I am not George Lucas or J.K. Rowling.
Enter Luke, near Revan Tower.
Enter the holograph of Kara.
Kara. What sort of time do you call this?
Luke. I'm really sorry. I had to go out for something important.
Kara. Well, the password changed at midnight, so you'll just have to sleep in the corridor, won't you?
Luke. You're joking. Why did it have to change at midnight?
Kara. That's the way it is. If you're angry, go and take it up with the Grand Master. He's the one who's tightened security.
Luke. [bitter] Fantastic. Really brilliant. Yeah, I would go and take it up with Yoda if he was here, because he's the one who wanted me to . . .
Enter the ghost of Canderous Ordo.
Canderous. He is here. Master Yoda returned to the Temple an hour ago. I had it from Jace Malcom. He appeared, according to the Supreme Commander, to be in good spirits, though a little tired, of course.
Luke. Where is he?
Canderous. Oh, groaning and clanking up on the Astronomy Tower. It's a favorite pastime of his.
Luke. Not the Commander. Yoda.
Canderous. Oh, in his quarters. I believe, from what Commander Malcom said, that he had business to attend to before turning in . . .
Luke. Yeah, he has.
Luke veers toward Yoda's quarters.
Kara. Come back. All right, I lied. I was annoyed you woke me up. The password's still "duracrete slug."
Exit Kara and Canderous.
Luke approaches Yoda's quarters.
Luke. Zoochberry cobbler.
The gargoyle springs to life and jumps aside. Luke steps on the spiral staircase, which moves upward like a turbolift.
Luke knocks.
Yoda's Voice. Enter.
Enter Yoda.
Luke. To what do I owe this very late pleasure?
Luke. Master. I've got it. I've got the memory from Car'das.
Yoda. Luke. This is spectacular news. Very well done indeed. I knew you could do it.
Luke and Yoda flow-walk back fifty-five years.
Enter a younger Jorj Car'das, with his students Palpatine (wearing the Talisman of Resurrection), Doriana, and Isard.
Palpatine. Captain. Is it true Master Windu is retiring?
Car'das. Now, Cosinga, I couldn't tell you if I knew, could I? I must say, my boy, I'd like to know where you get your information. More knowledgeable than half the Masters, you are. By the way, thank you for the ryshcate. You're quiet right. It is my favorite. But how did you know?
Palpatine. Intuition.
Car'das. [smiles] With your uncanny ability to know things you shouldn't and your careful flattery of the beings who matter, I confidently expect you to rise to Supreme Chancellor within twenty years. Fifteen, if you keep sending me that ryshcate. I have excellent contacts in the Senate.
All but Palpatine laugh.
Palpatine. [smiles] I don't know that politics would suit me, Captain. I don't have the right kind of background, for one thing.
Car'das. Nonsense. It couldn't be plainer you come from decent Force-sensitive stock, abilities like yours. No, you'll go far, Cosinga. I've never been wrong yet.
The chrono chimes.
Emperor's Ears, is that the time? Off you go, boys, or Master Coven will have us all in detention. Isard, I want you essay by tomorrow, or it's detention. Same goes for you, Doriana.
Exit all but Palpatine and Car'das.
Look sharp, Cosinga. You don't want to be caught out of bed after hours.
Palpatine. I know a secret shortcut or two.
Car'das. Yes, I imagine you do. Something on your mind, Cosinga?
Palpatine. Captain. I wondered if I could ask you something.
Car'das. Ask away, my boy. Ask away.
Palpatine. Yes, Captain. I couldn't think of anyone else to go to. The other Masters . . . well, they're not like you. They might misunderstand.
Car'das. Go on.
Palpatine. I was in the Archives the other day, in the Holocron Vaults. And I read something rather odd about a rare piece of the Force, And I thought perhaps you could illuminate me. It was called, as I understand it, a clone.
Car'das's smile wavers.
Car'das. Excuse me?
Palpatine. A clone. I came across the term while reading, and I didn't fully understand it.
Car'das. I'm not sure what you're reading, Cosinga. But that's very dark stuff. Very dark indeed.
Palpatine. But you obviously know all about them, Captain? I mean, a Jedi like you . . . Sorry, I mean, if you can't tell me, obviously . . . I just knew if anyone could tell me, you could . . . so I just thought I'd ask. . . .
Car'das. Well, a clone is an object in which a being has concealed part of their soul.
Palpatine. Yes, Captain. But I don't understand how that works.
Car'das. One splits one's soul and hides part of it in an object. By doing so, one is protected should one be attacked and the body destroyed.
Palpatine. Protected?
Car'das. That part of one's soul that was hidden lives on. In other words, one cannot die.
Palpatine. How does one split the soul, Captain?
Car'das. I think you know the answer to that, Cosinga.
Palpatine. Murder.
Car'das. Yes. Killing rips the soul apart. It is a violation against nature. A being intent upon using dark transfer, creating a clone, would use the damage to his advantage. He would incase the torn portion . . .
Palpatine. Encase? But how . . . ?
Car'das. There is an incantation. Don't ask me. I don't know. Do I look as if I've tried? Do I look like a killer?
Palpatine. No, Captain. Of course not. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend . . .
Car'das. Not at all, Cosinga. Not at all. It is natural to feel some curiosity about these things. Beings of a certain caliber have always been drawn to that aspect of the Force.
Palpatine. Out of curiosity, Captain, can you only split your soul once? For instance, isn't seven the most powerfully Force-sensitive number?
Car'das. Seven? Stars and planets, Cosinga. Isn't it bad enough to consider killing one being? To rip the soul into seven pieces . . .
Car'das studies Palpatine, looking deeply troubled.
This is all hypothetical, isn't it, Cosinga? Completely academic?
Palpatine. [smiles] Of course, Captain. Completely hypothetical.
Car'das. But all the same, Cosinga, keep it quiet, what I've told . . . that's to say, what we've discussed. Beings wouldn't like to think we've been chatting about clones. It's a banned subject at the Jedi Temple, you know. . . . Yoda's particularly fierce about it. . . .
Palpatine. I won't say a word, Captain. It will be our little secret.
Luke and Yoda flow-walk back to the present.
Exit Palpatine and Car'das.
Yoda. This is beyond anything I imagined. In my life, I have seen things that are unimaginably horrific. I know now you will see worse.
Luke. Do you mean to say he succeeded, Master, in making a clone?
Yoda. Oh, he succeeded. You heard Sidious. What he particularly wanted from Jorj was an opinion on what would happen to the being who created more than one clone, what would happen to the being so determined to evade death that he would be prepared to murder many times, rip his soul repeatedly, so as to store it in many, separately concealed clones. No text would have given him that information. As far as I know - as far, I am sure, as Sidious knew - no being had ever done more than tear his soul in two. Four years ago, I received what I considered certain proof that Sidious had split his soul.
Luke. Where? How?
Yoda. You handed it to me, Luke. The journal, Palpatine's journal, the one giving instructions on how to reopen the Dark Temple.
Luke. I don't understand, Master.
Yoda. Well, although I did not see the Palpatine who came out of the journal, what you described to me was a phenomenon I had never witnessed. A mere memory starting to act and think for itself? A mere memory, sapping the life out of the girl into whose hands it had fallen? No, something much more sinister had lived inside that book: a fragment of soul. I was almost sure of it. The journal had been a clone. But this raised as many questions as it answered. What intrigued and alarmed me most was that that journal had been intended as a weapon as much as a safeguard.
Luke. I still don't understand.
Yoda. Well, it worked as a clone is supposed to work. In other words, the fragment of soul concealed inside it was kept safe and had undoubtedly played its part in preventing the death of its owner. But there could be no doubt that Palpatine really wanted that diary read, wanted the piece of his soul to inhabit or possess somebody else, so that Exar Kun's monster would be unleashed again.
Luke. Well, he didn't want his hard work to be wasted. He wanted beings to know he was Kun's heir, because he couldn't take credit at the time.
Yoda. Quite correct. But don't you see, Luke, that if he intended the journal to be passed to, or planted on, some future Jedi student, he was being remarkably blasé about that precious fragment of his soul concealed within it. The point of a clone is, as Captain Car'das explained, to keep part of the self hidden and safe, not to fling it into somebody else's path and run the risk that they might destroy it, as indeed happened: that particular fragment of soul is no more. You saw to that. The careless way in which Sidious regarded this clone seemed most ominous to me. It suggested that he must have made, or had been planning to make more clones, so that the loss of his first would not be so detrimental. I did not wish to believe it. But nothing else seemed to make sense. Then you told me, two years later, that on the night that Sidious returned to his body, he made a most illuminating and alarming statement to his Sith: "I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality." That was what you told me he said. "Further than anybody." And I thought I knew what that meant, though the Sith did not. He was referring to his clones, clones in the plural, Luke, which I don't believe any other being has ever had. Yet it fitted: Lord Sidious has seemed to grow less human with the passing years, and the transformation he had undergone seemed to me to be only explainable if his soul was mutilated beyond the realms of what we might call usual evil. . . .
Luke. So he's made himself impossible to kill by murdering other beings? Why couldn't he make a Philosopher's Stone, or steal one, if he was so interested in immortality?
Yoda. Well, we know that he tried to do just that, five years ago. But there are several reasons why, I think, a Philosopher's Stone would appeal less than clones to Lord Sidious. While the Elixir of Life does indeed extend life, it must be drunk regularly, for all eternity, if the drinker is to maintain the immortality. Therefore, Sidious would be entirely dependent on the elixir. And if it ran out, or was contaminated, or if the stone was stolen, he would die just like any other sentient. Sidious likes to operate alone, remember. I believe that he would have found the thought of being dependent, even on the elixir, intolerable. Of course, he was prepared to drink it if it would take him out of the horrible part-life to which he was condemned after attacking you, but only to regain a body. Thereafter, I am convinced, he intended to continue to rely on his clones. He would need nothing more, if only he could regain a humanoid form. He was already immortal, you see, or as close to immortal as any being can be. But now, Luke, armed with this information, the crucial memory you have succeeded in procuring for us, we are closer to the secret of finishing Lord Sidious than anyone has ever been before. You heard him, Luke: "Can you only split yourself once? Isn't seven the most powerfully Force-sensitive number." Isn't seven the most powerfully Force-sensitive number. Yes, I think the idea of a seven-part soul would greatly appeal to Lord Sidious.
Luke. [horrified] He made seven clones. But they could be anywhere in the galaxy, hidden, buried, or invisible.
Yoda. I am glad to see you appreciate the magnitude of the problem. But firstly, no, Luke, not seven clones: six. The seventh part of his soul, however maimed, resides inside his regenerated body. That was the part of him that lived a spectral existence for so many years during his exile. Without that, he has no self at all. That seventh piece of soul will be the last that anybody wishing to kill Sidious must attack, the piece that lives in his body.
Luke. But the six clones, then. How are we supposed to find them?
Yoda. You are forgetting, you have already destroyed one of them. And I have destroyed another.
Luke. You have?
Yoda. Yes, indeed. The talisman, Luke. Darth Bane's talisman. And a terrible curse there was upon it too. Had it not been, forgive me the lack of seemly modesty, for my own prodigious skill, and for Lord Vader's timely action when I returned to the Jedi Temple, desperately injured, I might not have lived to tell the tale. However, a withered hand does not seem an unreasonable exchange for a seventh of Sidious's soul. The talisman is no longer a clone.
Luke. But how did you find it?
Yoda. Well, as you now know, for many years I have made it my business to discover as much as I can about Sidious's past life. I have traveled widely, visiting those places he once knew. I stumbled across the talisman hidden in the ruin of the Darths' house. It seem that once Sidious had succeeded in sealing a piece of his soul inside it, he did not want to wear it anymore. He hid it, protected by many powerful Force shields, in the shack where his ancestors had once lived (Tenebrous having been carted off to Kessel, of course), never guessing that I might one day take the trouble to visit the ruin, or that I might be keeping an eye open for traces of Force concealment. However, we should not congratulate ourselves too heartily. You destroyed the journal and I the talisman. But if we are right in our theory of a seven-part soul, four clones remain.
Luke. And they could be anything? They could be in durasteel cans, or empty transparisteel bottles.
Yoda. You are thinking of repulsors, Luke, which must be ordinary objects, easy to overlook. But would Lord Sidious use durasteel cans or old transparisteel bottles to guard his own precious soul? You are forgetting what I have showed you. Lord Sidious liked to collect trophies. And he preferred objects with a powerful Jedi or Sith history. His pride, his belief in his own superiority, his determination to carve for himself a startling place in Jedi history . . . these things, suggest to me that Sidious would have chosen his clones with some care, favoring objects worthy of the honor.
Luke. The journal wasn't that special.
Yoda. The journal, as you have said yourself, was proof that he was the heir of Exar Kun. I am sure that Sidious considered it of stupendous importance.
Luke. So, the other clones? Do you think you know what they are, Master?
Yoda. I can only guess. For the reasons I have already given, I believe that Lord Sidious would prefer objects that, in themselves, have a certain grandeur. I have therefore trawled back through Sidious's past to see if I can find evidence that such artifacts have disappeared around him.
Luke. The amulet. Surik's crystal.
Yoda. [smiles] Yes. I would be prepared to bet, perhaps not my other hand, but a couple of fingers, that they became clones three and four. The remaining two, assuming again that he created a total of six, are more of a problem. But I will hazard a guess that, having secured objects from Meetra Surik and Exar Kun, he set out to track down objects owned by Darth Revan or Bastila Shan. Four objects from the four founders would, I am sure, have exerted a powerful pull over Sidious's imagination. I cannot answer for whether he ever managed to find anything of Shan's. I am confident, however, that the only known relics of Revan remains safe.
Yoda indicates Revan's vibroblade and mask.
Luke. Do you think that's why he really wanted to come back to the Jedi Temple, Master, to try and find something from one of the other founders?
Yoda. My thoughts precisely. But unfortunately, that does not advance us much further, for he was turned away, or so I believe, without the chance to search the Temple. I am forced to conclude that he never fulfilled his ambition of collecting four founders' objects. He definitely had two. He may have found three. That is the best we can do for now.
Luke. Even if he got something of Shan's or of Revan's, that leaves a sixth clone. Unless he's got both?
Yoda. I don't think so. I think I know what the sixth clone is. I wonder what you will say when I confess that I have been curious for a while about the behavior of the serpent, Maul?
Luke. The serpent? You can use animals as clones?
Yoda. Well, it is inadvisable to do so, because to confide a part of your soul to something that can think and move for itself is obviously a very risky business. However, if my calculations are correct, Sidious was still at least one clone short of his goal of six when he entered your parents' house with the intention of killing you. He seems to have reserved the process of making clones for particularly significant deaths. You would certainly have been that. He believed that in killing you, he was destroying the danger the prophecy had outlined. He believed he was making himself invincible. I am sure that he was intending to make his final clone with your death. As we know, he failed. After an interval of some years, however, he used Maul to kill an old mundane being. And it might then have occurred to him to turn him into his last clone. He underlines the Kun connection, which enhances Lord Sidious's mystique. I think he is perhaps as fond of him as he can be of anything. He certainly likes to keep him close. And he seems to have an unusual amount of control over him, even for a Yuuzhan Vong.
Luke. So, the journal's gone. The talisman's gone. The crystal, the amulet, and the serpent are still intact. And you think there might be a clone that was once Shan's or Revan's?
Yoda. An admirably succinct and accurate summary, yes.
Luke. It's where you've been going, isn't it, Master, when you leave the Temple?
Yoda. Correct. I have been looking for a very long time. I think, perhaps, I may be close to finding another one. There are hopeful signs.
Luke. And if you do, can I come with you and help get rid of it?
Yoda. Yes, I think so.
Luke. [taken aback] I can?
Yoda. Oh, yes. I think you have earned that right.
Thrackan snorts.
Luke. Does Sidious know when a clone is destroyed, Master? Can he feel it?
Yoda. A very interesting question, Luke. I believe not. I believe that Sidious is now so immersed in evil, and these crucial parts of himself have been detached for so long, he does not feel as we do. Perhaps, at the point of death, he might be aware of his loss. But he was not aware, for instance, that the journal had been destroyed until he forced the truth out of Count Dooku. When Sidious discovered that the journal had been mutilated and robbed of all its powers, I am told that his anger was terrible to behold.
Luke. But I thought he meant Dooku to smuggle it into the Jedi Temple?
Yoda. Yes, he did, years ago, when he was sure he would be able to create more clones. But still, Dooku was supposed to wait for Sidious's say-so, and he never received it, for Sidious vanished shortly after giving him the journal. No doubt he thought that Dooku would not dare do anything with the clone other than guard it carefully. But he was counting too much upon Dooku's fear of a Master who had been gone for years and whom Dooku believed dead. Of course, Dooku did not know what the journal really was. I understand that Sidious had told him the journal would cause the Dark Temple to reopen because it was cleverly immersed in the dark side. Had Dooku known he held a portion of his Master's soul in his hands, he would undoubtedly have treated it with more reverence. But instead he went ahead and carried out the old plan for his own ends. By planting the journal upon Jonash Solo's daughter, he hoped to discredit Jonash and get rid of a highly incriminating Sith artifact in one stroke. Ah, poor Dooku . . . What with Sidious's fury about the fact that he threw away the clone for his own gain, and the fiasco at the Imperial Palace last season, I would not be surprised if he is not secretly glad to be safe on Kessel at the moment.
Luke. But if you could find them all . . . If you could destroy each clone . . .
Yoda. It destroys Sidious, yes. Without his clones, Sidious will be a mortal being with a maimed and diminished soul. Never forget, though, that while his soul may be damaged beyond repair, his brain and his dark side powers remain intact. It will take uncommon skill and power to kill a Sith Lord like Sidious even without his clones.
Luke. But I haven't got uncommon skill and power.
Yoda. Yes, you have. You have a power that Sidious has never had. You can . . .
Luke. [impatient] I know. I can love.
Yoda. Yes, Luke. You can love, which, given everything that has happened to you, is a great and remarkable thing. You are still too young to understand how unusual you are, Luke.
Luke. So, when the prophecy says that I'll have "power the Emperor knows not," it just means . . . love?
Yoda. Yes, just love. But Luke, never forget that what the prophecy says is only significant because Sidious made it so. I told you this at the end of last season. Sidious singled you out as the being who would be most dangerous to him. And in doing so, he made you the being who would be most dangerous to him.
Luke. But it comes to the same . . .
Yoda. [impatient] No, it does not. You are setting too much store by the prophecy.
Luke. But . . . but you said the prophecy means . . .
Yoda. If Sidious had never heard of the prophecy, would it have been fulfilled? Would it have meant anything? Of course not. Do you think every prophecy in the Tower of Reconciliation has been fulfilled?
Luke. But . . . but last season, you said one of us would have to kill the other . . .
Yoda. Luke, Luke. Only because Sidious made a grave error, and acted on Master Shryne's words. If Sidious had never murdered your father, would he have imparted in you a furious desire for revenge? Of course not. If he had not forced your mother to die for you, would he have given you a Force protection he could not penetrate? Of course not, Luke. Don't you see? Sidious himself created his worst enemy, just as tyrants everywhere do. Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the beings they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back. Sidious is no different. Always he was on the lookout for the one who would challenge him. He heard the prophecy, and he leapt into action, with the result that he not only handpicked the Jedi most likely to finish him, he handed him uniquely deadly weapons.
Luke. But . . .
Yoda leaps to his face.
Yoda. [agitated] It is essential that you understand this. By attempting to kill you, Sidious himself singled out the remarkable being who sits here in front of me, and gave him the tools for the job. It is Sidious's fault that you were able to see into his thoughts, his ambitions, that you even understand the snakelike language in which he gives orders. And yet, Luke, despite your privileged insight into Sidious's world (which, incidentally, is a gift any Sith Lord would kill to have), you have never been seduced by the dark side, never, even for a second, shown the slightest desire to become one of Sidious's followers.
Luke. [indignant] Of course I haven't. He killed my mother and father.
Yoda. You are protected, in short, by your ability to love, the only protection that can possibly work against the lure of power like Sidious's. In spite of all the temptation you have endured, all the suffering, you remain pure of heart, just as pure as you were at the age of eleven, when you stared into a holocron that reflected your heart's desire, and it showed you only the way to thwart Lord Sidious, and not immortality or riches. Luke, have you any idea how few beings could have seen what you saw in that holocron? Sidious should have known then what he was dealing with. But he did not. But he knows it now. You have flitted into Lord Sidious's mind without damage to yourself. But he cannot possess you without enduring mortal agony, as he discovered in the Imperial Palace. I do not think he understands why, Luke. But then, he was in such a hurry to mutilate his own soul, he never paused to understand the incomparable power of a soul that is untarnished and whole.
Luke. But, Master, it all comes to the same thing, doesn't it? I've got to try and kill him, or . . .
Yoda. Got to? Of course you've got to. But not because of the prophecy. Because you, yourself, will never rest until you've tried. We both know it. Imagine, please, just for a moment, that you had never heard that prophecy. How would you feel about Sidious now? Think.
Luke. [exhales] I'd want him finished. And I'd want to do it.
Yoda. Of course you would. You see, the prophecy does not mean you have to do anything. But the prophecy caused Lord Sidious to mark you as his equal. In other words, you are free to choose your way, quite free to turn your back on the prophecy. But Sidious continues to set store by the prophecy. He will continue to hunt you, which makes it certain, really, that . . .
Luke. That one of us is going to end up killing the other.
Yoda. Yes.
Exit all.
