INT. HYPERSPACE - STARSHIP - PASSENGER DECK

Two rows of seats take up space on either side of the deck’s narrow aisle, packed tight with individuals of various species. Amidala sits in one of the small seats, Bail Organa seated to her right, a small window set into the hull on her left.

COL. ORGANA : ... The Castle Lands are full of these amazing mounds.

AMIDALA : (disinterested) Are they really that impressive?

COL. ORGANA : Yes, they are. Maybe you’ll get to see them.

AMIDALA : That would be nice.

COL. ORGANA : (cont’d) I’m hungry. I’m going to go and see if I can’t get the stewards to whip something up for me. You want anything for yourself, Princess?

AMIDALA : No, not really. I’m not really hungry.

COL. ORGANA : Okay. I’ll just be a minute.

Bail gets up, and makes his way up to the hatch in the back of the aisle. Amidala turns to the window at her side, at lets her gaze fall upon the opaque surface of the small transparisteel square. In moments her eyes begin to droop, then finally close.

INT. HYPERSPACE - STARSHIP - PASSENGER DECK (DREAM SEQUENCE)

Suddenly the ship begins to shake violently. Amidala’s eyes pop open, and she straightens up in alarm as her fellow passengers begin to panic. Bail comes hurrying back down the aisle, gripping the seats along the way as the craft trembles to keep himself upright.

COL. ORGANA : Hey, what’s going on?!?

AMIDALA : Colonel?

At that moment the ship’s intercom system comes to life, and everyone in the passenger’s deck looks up toward the speaker set in the ceiling as the ship captain’s voice pipes in.

STARSHIP CAPTAIN : (O.S.) Passengers, this is your captain speaking. We’re currently passing through the outskirts of the Dania Nebula. The turbulence we’re experiencing is just a natural accoutrement of the route we’re taking, and is nothing to worry about. I advise you all to keep yourselves seated and to strap in. As I said, there’s nothing to worry about. Don’t worry. We’ll be through this in no time.

COL. ORGANA : (turning to Amidala) Amidala -

A loud bang echoes through the deck, and the ship jerks violently as it suddenly drops out of hyperspace. Colonel Organa goes flying down the aisle as the ship windows shatter inward, sending transparisteel shards flying into passengers’ faces.

AMIDALA : (shards cutting into the left side of her face) AGGHHH!

The hideous sound of rending metal cuts through the air, and the entire ship begins to fall apart, rattling to pieces. The passengers begin to scream in hysterical terror.

Bail crawls up the aisle towards Amidala, reaching outward towards her, as the hull caves in. A wicked shard of metal falls onto the Colonel’s neck, decapitating him instantly. The head flies forward onto Amidala’s lap. Her eyes widen in shock as Organa’s glassy gaze fixes upon her.

The entire front of the ship breaks away. Out there, looming before Amidala, is a large, red-brown planet. The remnants of the craft go into a spin, and Amidala screams as she starts her descent to the planet’s surface below.

INT. NABU - STARSHIP - PASSENGERS DECK - DAY (DREAM SEQUENCE)

Amidala regains consciousness within the demolished remnants of the downed spacecraft, which lies under an oppressive red sky in a large field of dead, brown grass. She groans, but other than some slight bruising and the ugly cuts in her face she is relatively unharmed. She unfastens her restraints, and drops down onto the ground. Before her stretches nothing other than plains of grass and the battered and burned bodies - and body parts - of dead passengers.

AMIDALA : (looking at the dead) Oh, no ... Lord ... Lord ...

Amidala bends over and throws up violently. The vomiting continues until nothing remains in her stomach. Once the retching comes to an end, she straightens up, wiping her mouth.

AMIDALA : Where ... where am I?

The young Princess looks all about her. Except for the sound of the slight breeze moving over the grass, the world is eerily silent.

VOICE : (O.S.) Princess ...

AMIDALA : (looking around) Who - who said that? Who’s there?

VOICE : (O.S.) Princess Amidala ... of the House of Naberrie ...

AMIDALA : Where are you?!? Show yourself!

VOICE : (O.S.) Princess Amidala Naberrie ... follow ...

AMIDALA : Follow what?!? Who are you?!?

VOICE : Follow, Princess Amidala ... follow ...

AMIDALA : (angry) Stop playing games with me!!!

VOICE : (O.S.) The path, Amidala ... follow the path ...

AMIDALA : What path? (cont’d) Why won’t you show yourself?

VOICE : (O.S.) The path ... before you ... The path ...

Amidala looks in front of her, searching for some hidden path, finding nothing other than grass and the dead.

AMIDALA : There’s nothing -

She stops, noticing for the first time that the dead bodies and parts scattered across the landscape in front of her are actually lain close together, forming a broad line that leads to a point ahead of her on the horizon.

AMIDALA : The bodies ...

Amidala waits for the voice to say something more, but it remains silent. Deciding that it has nothing more to say, the Princess begins to follow the path of damaged corpses.

Some time passes. Eventually Amidala reaches the end of the path - and the end of the grasslands. Before her stretches a barren landscape with a cobblestone path laid through it. She takes a step forward onto the paved path.

VOICE : (O.S.) Princess Amidala ...

Amidala spins around. There, behind her, stands a tall, gaunt, humanoid figure. He is clothed in a dark brown robe, his face completely hidden in the depths of a hood.

AMIDALA : You! You’re the one who -

The hooded figure brings one, gnarled arm out from the voluminous folds of his robe, and with a gesture she freezes, unable to move. He then beings to move towards her, gliding over the ground, opening his robes, exposing her to the black emptiness within as he approaches; her eyes widen in terror as he comes to her, and wraps his robe around her.

EXT. NABU - WASTELANDS - DAY (DREAM SEQUENCE)

The hooded figure spins around once, then opens his robes; Amidala is once again free to move. The figure closes his robes, and takes a step back from the Princess. Afraid, Amidala begins to run from him, leaving the path. As she does so an oppressive heat and stench falls on her, and she falters. Losing her footing, she stumbles, and crashes into a wooden post, breaking her nose and knocking her to the ground in the process.

AMIDALA : (holding her crushed, bleeding nose) My nose ... ohhh ...

The Princess rises up into a sitting position, and tears a strip of fabric from her outfit. She brings the rag to her nose and tilts her head back, trying to staunch the flow of blood. She then finally sees that the post she bumped into is actually a cross - and upon the cross lies her mother, secured to the X-shaped torture device with metal spikes driven through her hands; the former Queen is clothed in rags, her skin loose and gray-green with decay.

AMIDALA : M-Mommy?

The cadaverous Queen then turns her head down towards her daughter, and her eyelids fly open, exposing completely blank, yellowish orbs.

QUEEN JOBAL : Ahhhh ... mi ... da ... laaaaaaa.

A torrent of maggots begins raining down from her open mouth, and Amidala scoots back from the cross in disgust. Turning her head away from the cross, she notices other crosses dotting the landscape, each with a figure crucified to it. Amidala scurries to her feet, hoping to make it back onto the path, only to find the path vanished and crosses surrounding her at every turn.

AMIDALA : Nooo ... nooo ...

Each of the crosses towering over her bears someone she knows - her father, sister, brother, Panaka, Anakin, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, etc. Buzzards swarm them all, pecking at their decaying flesh.

AMIDALA : You’re not real ... not real ... none of this is real.

With those words the corpses open all their eyes, and in unison begin to wail in pain and despair.

Amidala : (covering her ears and shutting her eyes tight as she collapses to her knees) Not real ... not real ... not real ...

The cadavers’ wailing grows louder, too loud for Amidala to cancel out. Taking her hands away from her ears she begins to scream, joining the dead in their lamentation.

The ground begins to shake, then, and the crosses begin to vibrate. One-by-one the corpses fall from their crosses, the rotting flesh and crumbling bone in their limbs giving way. They fall in upon Amidala in a heap, and she shrieks in terror.

The now-empty crosses begin to fall apart, raining planks to the ground, leaving only empty posts behind. The ground around the posts split open, and the beams shoot up into the air like launching rockets, disappearing into the blood red sky.

The cracks in the earth grow wider, opening into massive chasms. The dead all around fall into the open pits, and are consumed by subterranean fire.

The Princess screams on as the earthquake rages around her, the chasms disappearing as the shattered ground begins to push upward, forming jagged peaks. Eventually the cataclysm comes to an end, and Amidala finds herself on a towering mountain.

AMIDALA : (climbing to her feet) Wha - wha - wha -

She looks upward toward the summit of the mountain, where she spots a palace silhouetted against roiling storm clouds. Amidala cannot make out the details of the palace, as it is too far up.

B&W MONSTER : (O.S.) Enough of this!

Startled by the loud, unfriendly voice, the Princess spins around.

There, standing metres away from her, is a hideous monster; he is a vague cross between humanoid and insectoid, over three metres tall, with mottled black-and-white skin colouring, four arms, and a noseless, mouthless skull-like face with yellow reptilian eyes set in deep black sockets.

The monster begins to walk toward the scared Princess.

B&W MONSTER : You ... are mine!

The black-and-white horror snatches her before she can flee, pulling her up under his two left arms. He then begins to walk on, climbing a natural path up the mountain to the palace on the summit. A bolt of lightning flashes from the overcast sky above.

EXT. NABU - MOUNTAIN PALACE - COURTYARD - DAY (DREAM SEQUENCE)

The monster and Amidala arrive at the palace grounds. As Amidala sees the palace she recognizes it as a twisted, decaying, sharp-angled twin to the Theed Palace.

The monster moves forward, climbing over a warped drawbridge spanning a yellow acid-filled moat. They come to the barred entrance of the castle, which is guarded by a second monster - similar to the first, but with a horn-crowned humanoid head and black-and-red colouring.

B&R MONSTER : What is your business here?

The black-and-white monster brings out Amidala, holding her before him by her hair.

B&W MONSTER : For the Master.

The black-and-red monster steps forward, lowering his face down to Amidala’s. He takes two sniffs, then nods once. He returns to his post by the palace entrance, grabbing hold of a wheel set into the wall, and begins to turn it. The bars in the entrance begin to lift, allowing entrance.

B&R MONSTER : Go forward.

The black-and-white monster tucks Amidala back under his arm, and together with the black-and-red monster they step into the castle.

INT. NABU - MOUNTAIN PALACE - ENTRANCE HALL - DAY (DREAM SEQUENCE)

The three make their way through the entrance hall. It is a sharp-angled, nightmarish version of the original at Theed. Large torches burn upon the Gothic walls, and what isn’t bathed in cold blue light is cloaked in deep shadow. Vermin scurry across the bone-littered stone floor.

INT. NABU - PALACE - THRONE ROOM - DAY

The two monsters with their human captive enter the throne room.

The throne room is a massive chamber, with rough-hewn stone walls rising in a triangular formation to a flat ceiling above. From the walls hang midnight blue velvet tapestries, with skeletons and cadavers chained to the walls between them.

The creatures stop when they see the hooded figure seated upon a throne of bones in the centre of the chamber - their Dark Master.

DARK MASTER : My servants ...

B&R MONSTER : Our Master ...

DARK MASTER : This is she? She whom I sought?

B&W MONSTER : It is her, Master.

DARK MASTER : Come forth.

Their heads bowed in reverence, the two creatures step forward toward the throne. As they move closer Amidala sees the Dark Master clearly for the first time; he is a pale human figure, all but his mouth and chin hidden in the shadows of a hooded, blue robe embroidered with turquoise patterning.

DARK MASTER : Release her.

The black-and-white monster unceremoniously throws Amidala down to the floor.

DARK MASTER : You have done well, my servants. (to Amidala) As for you ...

The hooded man rises from his throne, and begins to walk toward her. Amidala, along with the two monsters, back away as he approaches.

DARK MASTER : You, my dear, you are the final obstacle in my path, the last barrier to be crossed.

The Dark Master raises his hands. Cyan electricity begins to dance across his fingertips.

AMIDALA : (Backing away) Please, no ...

DARK MASTER : The King is dead. Love live the King!

AMIDALA : No!!!

From within the depths of the hood eyes open, exposing bright yellow irises. The hooded figure throws his hands forward, and a barrage of cyan lightning flashes outward, falling upon Amidala. She collapses to the floor, screaming in agony as the tendrils of dark side energy seep into her bones.

INT. HYPERSPACE - STARSHIP - PASSENGER DECK

AMIDALA : (awakening) Nooooooo!!!!!!

The Princess’s loud scream startles the other passengers. Amidala rockets forward, her eyes wide open in terror, her nails digging into the seat in front of her.

Qui-Gon, who has been sitting in the seat behind her, stands up quickly, putting his hand on her shoulder.

QUI-GON : Amidala, what is it?!

Bail Organa comes racing down the hall, coming back to Amidala’s side.

COL. ORGANA : What is it?! What’s happening?!

OBI-WAN : (rising to his feet beside Qui-Gon) I think she fell asleep - a bad dream.

A stewardess comes walking down the aisle briskly, coming to the Colonel.

STEWARDESS : Is everything alright here?

COL. ORGANA : Yes, it’s fine. She just had a nightmare. (to Amidala) You okay, Princess?

Amidala refuses to respond, hers nails locked into the back of the seat before her, eyes wide with terror.

QUI-GON : Amidala, are you alright? Princess?

STEWARDESS : Miss, I can get you a drink. Would you like that? Miss?

AMIDALA : What is it -

OBI-WAN : Princess?

AMIDALA : What are we dealing with?