William Shakespeare's Jedi the Last
Page 7
Enter BB-8 severally, with several POLICEMEN who are bound and gagged.
BB-8 Roohblay flew bleezilf zzwaroil flirblix blee
Flig flibrooq blooflit bluuzooz zoon blic zood!
DJ Droid dud didst thou do this? Impressive, droid!
Enter POLICEMAN 2.
POLICE. 2 Raise thou thine hands! Raise them!
DJ —So shall I, sirrah.
[BB-8 begins shooting coins from his interior toward Policeman 2, hitting him.
BB-8 Zoom bloo, blav blipreej fllizoon blisflir rooh!
[DJ strikes Policeman 2, knocking him unconscious.
Blayflit blikflli zoonblis blip flewblic blee
Zilfroil blox roil, flib blisblay fllizoom flir.
DJ What is thy story, rounded round rotund one?
[Exeunt DJ and BB-8 together. Exeunt bound guards severally.
Enter two more POLICEMEN.
POLICE. 3 The knaves did run this way! Lock down the exits
Ere they can make escape.
POLICE. 4 —Look sir, a hole.
They flee within the sewers, by my troth!
[All policemen walk aside in pursuit.
Enter ROSE TICO and FINN.
FINN My nose found not that cesspit to my liking.
The Canto Bight police shall come forthwith—
What shall we do? I fain would know thy thoughts.
Enter several FATHIERS.
FATHIER 1 Ye gentles, pray: attend the voice of one
You mayhap look on with suspicious eye—
We are not brutes, not beasts, but fathiers grand,
A graceful race of giant, noble steeds.
Consider’d prisoners in Canto Bight,
Our lot is to be ta’en from these small stables
Unto the racing track to run our fastest
So Canto Bight’s rich citizens may have
A moment of great mirth at our expense.
Then, back unto our pens inadequate.
Too small to lie down, we are made to stand
Until our joints and bones are calling out
And we’re releas’d for yet another race—
An endless cycle built of slavery.
We shall help you escape, if you help us.
ROSE Yea, we’ll release thee sans a second thought,
O brave and noble creatures much abus’d.
Enter stable children ARASHELL, ONIHO, and TEMIRI.
Fear not, ye little ones, I prithee do
Not call the guards who would discover us.
Behold my ring and hidden sign within—
This symbol ye do recognize, I’ll wager.
We come from the Resistance. Can you help?
FATHIER 1 Sweet children, thank you for your constant kindness.
Come now, Resistance soldiers, on my back,
And we shall raise a storm more violent than
The residents of Canto Bight e’er saw.
[Rose and Finn climb onto Fathier 1’s back. Chaos ensues.
TEMIRI Go, go, Resistance! Go and fare ye well!
Enter CHORUS.
CHORUS Hold tight unto your seats, expectant crowd,
And you shall see the fathiers take their flight!
Policemen left behind in dust and cloud,
While fathiers make stampede through Canto Bight.
The guests of the casino feel a shake,
Then burst the fathiers even through the walls.
The patrons panic, screaming ’midst the quake,
Around them the casino’s glory falls.
The croupiers run for their very lives,
While guests—like Ubbla Mollbro—shout in fright.
No bit of the decorum here survives—
E’er shall their memories recall this night.
[Exit Chorus. Exeunt all except Rose, Finn, and Fathier 1.
FINN O ride unusual and fearful, too!
Methinks thou hast enjoy’d this folly, Rose!
We rode through spaces tiny, far too tight,
Dogg’d by the mean police in speeders fast,
Who, finally, destroy’d our transport pod
As fathiers did draw near it on the beach.
As leaves before the wildest hurricane
Do fly, we mounted up the hillside and
Evaded the police who follow’d on.
A ride I shall not soon forget, my friend.
Enter two POLICEMEN in speeders, approaching from a distance.
ROSE Alas, we have been trapp’d upon this cliff.
FINN ’Twas worth the fight, to tear the town in two.
ROSE [to Fathier 1:] My friend, thou sav’dst us by thy bravery.
Fly hence, be free with all thy waiting herd.
Go, knowing that thou hast our gratitude.
[She removes the fathier’s saddle.
FATHIER 1 I wish thy freedom came along with mine.
My thanks I add to thine, in friendship true.
[Exit Fathier 1.
ROSE E’en now ’twas worth it, now that they are free.
Enter BB-8 in the Libertine, nearby.
BB-8 Bluuzilf fligroil zoom blay, flit zilfreej flir
Blav fllizooz bleeblik zoon bloozood flewblis!
FINN Ha! Cunning BB-8—fly’st thou this ship?
Enter DJ, behind BB-8 on the Libertine.
DJ Hello! Necessitate now need a ride?
FINN [to Rose:] Reluctant allies of this man are we.
ROSE They who would beg cannot the choosers be!
[Exeunt Rose and Finn on the Libertine with DJ and BB-8, evading the police.
SCENE 3.
On Ahch-To.
Enter LUKE SKYWALKER.
LUKE The Force and I must reacquainted be.
Too long have I turn’d guiltily away
From all the Force hath been, is, and shall be.
More, now, than half my life hath I’ve studied it,
And been enwrapp’d within the mighty Force.
Nay, as I say the words the truth belies them—
Hath not the Force been with me always? Yea.
E’en as a baby, brought by Obi-Wan
To Tatooine and my adoptive parents.
E’en as I grew, though ignorant of it,
The Force was there, around me, near me, in me.
I was afeard, my training hopes were dash’d,
And in my fear and doubt I hid myself—
Clos’d off was I, uncertain and alone.
Though I was dwelling on this sacred island,
This holy shrine of ancient Jedi practice,
The Force I neither sought nor felt nor us’d.
Come, Force, again Luke Skywalker doth reach—
I feel the island, yea, all Ahch-To, too,
The galaxy entire I sense, indeed.
Reach out, reach out, unto thy sister true.
Sweet Leia, thou art there, in farthest space—
Aboard thy ship, reposing and unwell—
Mine eyes can nearly see thee, where thou liest.
Thou sensest me as well, I know thou dost—
And on thy lips doth fall a single, “Luke!”
O Force, O sister kind—too long, too long!
I shall not turn away from ye again.
Remain with me, and I in thee, strong Force,
A Jedi calls to thee in longing tones.
[Exit Luke.
Enter REY.
Enter KYLO REN aside, sans his doublet. They are joined in the Force.
REY I’d rather not be in thy presence now.
KYLO Yea, also could I say the same to thee.
REY [aside:] How shall I speak to this desh
irted man
And hope to focus on the conversation?
[To Kylo:] Say, wherefore didst thou hate thy father kind?
Hast thou no cloak or towel thou canst use?
[Kylo dons his doublet.
I shall repeat: why hatest thou thy father—
I prithee, render me an honest answer.
Thou hadst a father who did love thee well,
Did care for thee, and raise thee as his own.
Pah! Weep I angry tears to think upon’t!
KYLO I hated not my father.
REY —Wherefore then?
KYLO Then wherefore what? Then wherefore what? Go on!
REY Why didst thou murder him? I do not know,
And never shall the matter comprehend.
KYLO How couldst thou, since thy parents threw thee out,
An ’twere they look’d on thou as less than garbage.
REY It was not so.
KYLO —Aye, ’twas, and yet thou need’st them,
And cannot stop thyself from needing them,
Belike shall ever need them, too, sans cease.
It is thy greatest weakness—thou dost search
For thy two wayward parents ev’rywhere—
First in Han Solo, now Luke Skywalker.
Hath he told thee what happen’d on that night?
REY Yea.
KYLO —Nay. The man had sens’d my powers vast—
E’en as he senses thine—and was afraid.
By night he came to me, lightsaber brandish’d,
With murderous intention in his eye.
Mine only recourse was to make defense,
I call’d my lightsaber to block his thrust.
The shelter roof above my head became
The nearest weapon I could use to stop him.
REY Thou art a liar.
KYLO —Let the past lie dead.
Yes, kill it if thou must. ’Tis how thou shalt
Become what thou art meant, by Fate, to be.
REY The past is not dead. ’Tis not even past.
KYLO Bethink thee on my words. Belike we shall
Discuss these things again, as wills the Force.
[Kylo Ren turns aside, veiled.
REY Reliev’d of this most unexpected visit,
Erupting with both doubts and qualms—I’ll walk.
Ye rambling ocean waves, what can ye tell me?
Search I below, the place ’gainst which Luke caution’d.
Toward the swampy mouth, I scuttle slowly.
Alas! Brought down, beneath the ocean cold!
Lo, under I shall sink, so get thee up,
Enow of drowning thoughts—I float above.
But what, pray tell, is this I now espy?
E’en some strange looking glass, of magic made—
Like music or kind voice, it calleth me.
I touch its surface, and behind—though I
Ken not the how, Reys multiply at once.
Eventually scores of me do show—
We stand in an unbroken line of clones,
One body to another, each a copy.
Unshaken, I do slyly raise my hand—
Like fit machine, the rest all do the same.
Did I, though, set the first wave off? Was’t me?
Methinks, by chance, I merely am the midpoint.
As I do twist my hand to here and yon,
Keen still to know the source of this enchantment,
E’en then I view myself before, behind,
These thousand copies each repeating, too.
How odd this is. I snap my fingers once—
Exactly now behind and now afore,
My faithful set of copied sisters snap.
All full with panic should I be, perchance,
Still am I calm: I know this somewhere leads,
Shall show me what I came to view therein.
Expose, I bid the glass, mine absent parents.
Some shadow doth come close on th’other side.
Yet as the haze doth lift, I spy what’s there—
Aught I do glimpse: my selfsame visage here.
While I did think I’d—in this cave—get answers,
Naught cometh. Zounds! Alone have I been ever.
KYLO [coming forward:] Nay, thou art not alone.
REY —Nor, then, art thou.
’Tis not too late for thou to turn t’ward good.
My hand I do extend to thee in peace.
KYLO As I do mine in th’hope of partnership.
[They reach their hands toward each other.
REY [aside:] I feel the touch and see a future bright,
Wherein the man doth deeds which presage good.
KYLO [aside:] I feel the touch and see a future sight,
Wherein the woman worketh by my side.
REY [aside:] There’s light inside this man—his destiny.
I had not dar’d to think it would be so.
KYLO [aside:] There’s dark inside this woman, ’tis her fate.
I had not dar’d to look for such an equal.
Enter LUKE SKYWALKER, seeing REY and KYLO REN connected in the Force.
LUKE Nay! It must never be—desist anon!
[Exit Kylo Ren.
REY Is’t true, what he hath told me of thine actions?
Didst thou, in anger, try to kill him once?
LUKE Depart at once from this most sacred place—
This island holds no welcome for thee yet.
[Luke begins walking away.
REY Stop thou and listen. And if thou shalt not,
I’ll make thee—yea, I shall not shun a fight.
[Rey knocks Luke down with her quarterstaff.
Wert thou the one—creat’dst thou Kylo Ren?
LUKE [aside:] Though I have not for years known combat, still
I shall not let her best me in her rage.
[Luke parries and dodges her, defending himself with a rod. They duel.
REY Thou shalt give me the answers I desire!
LUKE Nay, in thine anger, thou shalt never win.
REY My quarterstaff is not enough for thee?
Then feel the power of thy lightsaber!
[Rey calls Luke’s lightsaber to her, engaging it as Luke falls.
Thou art, belike, less pow’rful than thou think’st.
Tell me the truth of what did hap that night.
LUKE I saw the darkness—in him, all around.
I sens’d it building in him, day by day.
Full many moments as I trainèd him,
The darkness rose and I bore witness to’t.
I went to him by night, whilst he did sleep,
And look’d inside the man. There I did see
The darkness far beyond what I’d imagin’d.
Snoke had already turn’d his youthful heart.
Ben would, I saw, breed pain, destruction, death—
The end of all that I had ever lov’d
Because of what he would, one day, become.
For one brief moment, most unfortunate,
Mine instinct call’d on me to halt this future—
Keep it from being his reality—
As if I could. I brandish’d my lightsaber.
Yet, even as I did, the impulse pass’d
An ’twere it was a momentary shadow.
I felt then only shame. Yet consequence
Did follow on, as I saw Ben awake,
Behold his master and his uncle with
A bold lightsaber held too near his head.
The last thing I observ’d were his two eyes:
The eyes belonging to a frighten’d bo
y,
Whose master fail’d him utterly that night.
He call’d his lightsaber, brought down the roof—
The rest of what I told thee was the truth.
REY Thou fail’dst in thinking all his choices made,
Yet they are not. There’s conflict in him still.
If he but turneth from the dark side, then
The tide of all our struggles, too, may shift.
This could be key to how th’Resistance wins.
LUKE This scene shall not play out as thou dost think.
REY It shall indeed! Just now, as we touch’d hands,
I saw his future, feats that he shall do.
I saw them e’en as I do see thee here.
If I but go to him, Ben Solo may—
And shall, and will, whatever come—be turn’d.
LUKE Rey, hear me, I implore thee: do not this.
REY Here, then, is thy lightsaber—take it, please.
Be thou the Jedi and the needed hero.
Nay, thou dost not and wilt not wear the mantle,
I feel it in thy spirit disinclin’d.
The choice is made: if it shall not be thee,
Ben Solo turning is our only hope.
[Exit Rey.
LUKE O, heavy heart and odious result.
Have I, once more, my family and friends—
Indeed, all that is good and worthy—fail’d?
Below me, Rey is gone, and this for good,
As flies the Falcon from the island’s shores.
What vanity hath brought me to this place?
What grave mistakes and petty arguments?
How hath Luke Skywalker become the man
Who would refuse to fight for what is right?
Methinks mine inclination hath been proven:
The time arriveth for the Jedi’s end.
Whatever made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To rest in us unus’d. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th’event,
A thought which, quarter’d, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward. I know not
Why yet I live to say “This thing’s to do,”
When I have cause and will and strength to do’t.
My thoughts be action, or be nothing worth!
Upon the instant, I shall take a torch,
And to the ancient Jedi tree I’ll go.