Chancellor Palpatine gets knocked on his ass as General Grievous comes through the shattered window. The Chancellor picks himself up, dusts himself off, and in very haughty fashion says, “How dare you barge into my private residence? Who do you think you are?”
Shaak-Ti warns, “Chancellor, I don’t think—"
“I’ll take care of this. I am Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic and I will not be bullied by any thug who happens to—"
Shaak-Ti Force-pulls Palpatine into her arms and backs into the hallway, covered by the Ithorian and the Talz Jedi. She orders the clone troopers to take Grievous and she shuts the blast door.
The three Jedi and two troopers run down the hallway with Palpatine and press the button for the elevator.
Back in the room, Grievous makes grisly work of the troopers, severing limbs, crushing heads and chucking one guy through the window.
In the hallway, everyone stares back at the door of the Chancellor’s office. A buzzsaw sound is heard against the blast door. The Ithorian desperately bangs on the elevator button four times.
Grievous bursts through the door just as the elevator arrives. He lopes down the hallway on all fours like an animal. The Jedi throw some kind of invisible Force balls at him which he easily evades. Shaak-Ti’s blast pushes him into a wall. He starts to come out, but the Ithorian steps forward and bellows, causing the ceiling to collapse. Grievous is buried long enough for the group to back into the elevator.
The Ithorian pants heavily.
“Ithorian,” Shaaki-Ti explains to the Chancellor. “Four throats. Quite powerful.”
“So I’ve heard,” says the Chancellor, cleaning out his ear with his pinky.
The elevator ride is seemingly taking forever. It’s a glass elevator, and suddenly Grievous can be seen loping down the side of the building along side them.
A clone trooper springs into action, assembles his bazooka and fires at Grievous, filling the car with smoke.
The elevator reaches the bottom. Their way to Palpatine is blocked by a company of super battle droids. Grievous drops down in front of the droids, then sends them forward to attack.
The Ithorian steps forward again and uses his sonic blast to blow the droids away, but Grievous digs his claws into the concrete. He tucks himself into a ball and starts inching forward, step by step, defying the sonic onslaught.
“Call for support!” says Shaak-Ti to one of the troopers.
“We’re being jammed. We have no communication. We’re on our own!” he replies.
The Talz scoops up the Chancellor in his arms and the group tries to sprint to safety.
Their way is blocked by another enemy – two staff-wielding Magna Guard droids. Without missing a beat, the three Jedi vault over them, but the two clones are taken out.
Cut to planet Nelvaan.
Anakin is riding the giant sheepdog and the voice of Obi-Wan is heard, repeating the words of the shaman:
“You must follow the wind, for it is the Mother's cry.”
Anakin travels in the direction of the wind.
“Travel her tears, they are frozen with fear.”
Anakin travels along a frozen river.
“Enter the Mother's mouth to awake her inner flame.”
Anakin enters a volcanic cave. He views a wall covered with petroglyphs. He is struck by a pain in his head and suddenly the rock drawings start to move, recounting a legend of the indigenous people.
Herds of giant sheepdogs roam the land. Nelvaan warriors bring one down. In their village, the women carry baskets on their heads and do agricultural work. A pair of women are picking leaves from the trees near the river when a monster – a snake-like dragon – emerges from the water. It kills one woman and the other flees for help. One hero goes after the dragon. He attacks it several time with his spear and drives it back to the water. He thinks it is dead and he raises his arms in celebration, only to have the beast rise from the water one last time and bite off his arm.
The warrior collapses in his woman’s arms. She fashions him a false arm and he marvels at it. A giant fish emerges from the water and he kills the fish with the hand. Two people are carried off by a giant bird and he rescues them by using the hand again to kill the bird. A giant blue monster – the one Anakin killed – threatens the village and the hero uses the false hand to beat it to death.
The hero marvels at the strength of the hand, which has grown bigger each time he has used it. The people of the village revere him. The women clap, the youths play horns and the warriors raise their spears in salute. But then the ghost hand grows into the very dragon that the hero thought was dead. It kills the villagers one by one, then carries off the hero’s woman. When the woman is carried off, the hero starts mutating into a monster.
The woman being carried off screams “Anakin!” in Padme’s voice and Anakin passes out momentarily.
Anakin picks himself up and finds he is in front of some kind of machine.
[Note: I loved the cave paintings and the legend of Ghost Hand.]
Cut to Coruscant.
The three Jedi protecting Palpatine are being pursued by the Magna Guards. They leap from platform to platform, but they can’t shake the droids. Shaak-Ti turns and takes on the two droids to buy time, then the group leaps onto a passing flying freighter.
The Ithorian says something in his own language to Shaak-Ti. She replies, “No,” then turns to duel the droids, who have also landed on the freighter. The Ithorian joins her in the fight, but the Talz, still cradling the Chancellor, does not draw his saber. When another droid lands on the freighter, the Talz Force-pushes him off. But the droid reaches out an extendible arm and hauls himself back onto the freighter.
Grievous and yet another Magna Guard land on the freighter. Grievous purposely damages the freighter with his lightsaber to make it spiral toward the sidewalk. The freighter crashes through one of the big neon signs then hits the street. The Jedi hit the ground running and hustle the Chancellor into the subway. They vault the turnstiles while a friendly voice urges them to deposit two Republic credits. The staff-wielding droids pursue, followed by Grievous, who smashes the turnstiles to silence the voice.
[Note: A bunch of fare beaters! I wonder if Shaak-Ti will get an automatic summons sent to her.]
A big saber fight erupts in a strangely empty train station. The Talz is forced to cradle the Chancellor in his left hand and use his saber to fend off Grievous. The Jedi use the train station to their advantage by ducking between cars, riding on the top of trains, and Force-pushing the Magna-Guards onto the tracks in the path of oncoming trains. The Magna Guards try to separate the Talz protecting the Chancellor from the other Jedi, but the Ithorian, displaying stellar swordsmanship, kills three of the droids and makes it back to his comrade.
The Talz puts the Chancellor down. He compliments his comrade in his own language – and so does the Chancellor – but then Shaak-Ti bounds up with Grievous close behind. Grievous backs them up into a corridor and flings the brave Talz and Ithorian Jedi aside. He advances on Shaaki-Ti, who has the Chancellor behind her.
“And so it ends. A valiant effort, but as you can see, ultimately futile” says Grievous.
His cape billows behind him and, unbeknownst to him, one end ties itself in a tight knot around a handle on a stationary train.
Palpatine raises an eyebrow.
“Now, Jedi, prepare yourself, for you are about to leave this world,” says Grievous.
“I don’t think so,” replies Shaak-Ti calmly.
Boong-boong!
The light in the tunnel turns green and the train pulls away at full speed, carrying Grievous with it.
[Note: Sweet! I want to be Shaaki-Ti’s padawan.]
[Note: The “boong-boong” sound was just like the old “F” train closing doors warning sound.]
Despite her quick thinking and brave words, Shaak-Ti’s body sags after Grievous is pulled away. She is mentally and physically drained.
“Excellent work!” says Palpatine, clapping.
The other two Jedi return, having survived being kicked by Grievous.
“Hurry!” she says, regaining her strength.
They take off again.
Shaak-Ti smashes a window with her open palm and the three Jedi leap out, the Talz cradling Palpatine like a baby again.
Cut to Nelvaan.
Anakin climbs up into an industrial building. He sneaks around and spies some Techno Union guys. The assistant tells the one in charge that “the specimen control can’t be guaranteed.”
The one in charge says that Grievous grows impatient.
Anakin comes across a bunch of creatures in tubes filled with green liquid. He recognizes them as Nelvaan warriors, but they now look more like large moles.
An unaltered male is strapped to a vertical examination table. A glass tube comes down over him and the tank fills with green water. A Techno Union guy pushes a button and energy starts coursing through the tank. Anakin has seen enough. He shouts, “No!” and starts slicing battle droids.
“Jedi!” says the Techno Unionists. They start to clear the building.
The Nelvaan warrior in the tank starts mutating.
“Unleash the specimens!” says the leader.
An iris door starts opening and a bunch of the mutated Nelvaan males shamble forward. Anakin pleads with them to stay back.
“Wait! I’m here to help. You’ve been altered. You must regain control of yourselves! Please stop! I don’t want to harm you!”
One of them raises its arm, which has a gun attachment, and points it at Anakin.
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