I expected oblivion. Instead, I found myself in a palace. From the design I knew this to be Neimoidia, the Trade Federation home world. My only knowledge of this planet came from holos and stories. All the other places to which I was summoned held some emotional attachment for me. Why was I here?

I saw Hask, sitting on his throne, chewing idly on something part way between worm and sausage. Hask, the old Neimoidian who ruled the Trade Federation for decades and oppressed half the galaxy. Hask, who gave Padmé her Theed doll. While I'd never met him, I knew him through Padmé's eyes, through Force-created visions. I'd thought him dead, but there he was, enjoying the wealth created by his pillaging of Naboo.

My hatred burned, rebuilding my substance. Is this the final end for a spirit that follows the Dark Side? To be drawn inexorably to the object of his hatred? If so, there are worse endings.

I sensed power in him, a shining presence of midi-chlorians. He didn't seem aware of me. Perhaps it was because I was yet so weak and fragmented, my essence mere wisps of energy. But I was getting stronger. Soon, I planned to reach for him and--

But wait. It was not Hask which drew me. I allowed myself to be dragged on, curious, as the flow of energies took me inevitably down toward a small stone.

What was this mysterious object?

Padmé's Theed doll.

I allowed myself to be pulled closer, and as I drew near I recognized another presence, bound within the doll. At that moment, I felt as if I were again walking in the grassy fields beneath the sun of Naboo, sharing shy smiles with the woman I loved. It was as if all the dark and twisted paths of my life had ceased to exist.

It was Padmé.

Her arms reached for me, tearing desperately at what remained of my spirit. She was the origin of the mysterious bands of energy. Had I but known.

She sent her thoughts to me. "At last, I have found you."

Joy can be a palpable thing within the spiritual realms of the Force. As solid to beings in our state as fortifications or mountains, as deep as the mines of Naboo, as full of life as the Gungan's ocean kingdom.

"I reached for you--" her thoughts became indistinct. I felt her touching each of the memories which drew me, the places I believed were chosen by the Jedi for my judgment. I saw the Jedi Temple where I slew the five children, Degoba, the empty spaces where Alderan once floated, and Mustafar where I was defeated and watched my true love die.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"The Theed doll he gave me was carved from the rock of Degoba, a planet alive with the Force. Hask used it to bind me. I am part of Hask's treasure."

"I don't understand."

"Look around you."

I did. There were other objects like this one, items infused with the Force. Each of them was a Force construct, designed to contain a spirit, and each of them contained a royal person. A wookie chieftain was bound to a simple bone, a Gungan boss to a shell, and the Emperor himself was wrapped in a luminous green gemstone.

I laughed at this last.

"Free us," she said.

Hask saw me, his great yellow eyes widened in shocked surprise. He snarled, and raised his hands and I felt a spiritual prison shimmer all around. I resisted, but barely.

"Leave my collection alone," Hask said. "Or Luke dies."

His collection? Then I remembered his words: royal children are like treasure. He collected the souls of nobility as if they were coins.

"Luke is already lost to me," I said. True, Luke's death would devastate me, but with Padmé so near and my hatred so strong I had the power to fight. "Only your destruction matters."

"I pledge myself to your teachings, to your understanding of the Sith," the Gungan boss said.

I felt his strength flood into me.

"And I," said the enslaved Hutt. "Invest you with my spiritual wealth."

"Wraagh," the wookie chieftain said.

The wookies make no more sense in death than in life. But between the three of them, however, I held the doors to my prison open.

"I also pledge myself and my people's blood," said the Tuskan lord.

I saw in his eyes that he knew me, knew what I did to his kind. Yet in this hour enemies became brothers, even such as we.

"I have already pledged myself to you, but I renew it here with all my heart," Padmé said.

I felt the strength flow into me, and I extended my hand toward Hask. I felt the air choking off inside him. He gestured frantically, tendrils of yellow light spiraled around me, tried to draw the prison closed.

I was almost strong enough to choke him, almost strong enough to resist him, but not enough to do both. The prison nearly closed before I forced it open, but I had to release Hask for a moment and he sucked in a quick gasp.

"And I pledge myself to your--" the Emperor said. "To your--your perversion of the Sith teachings to--"

His power didn't come to me.

Hask and I struggled.

"I still think love is the most dangerous of passions," the Emperor said.

"My love for Luke is how I resisted you at the end, and it's the only reason I'm here now," I said.

I gave up trying to choke Hask. He was too strong. "It is the only power that can save any of you."

"I bind myself to your--your understanding of the Sith code," the Emperor said in despair. Still, no strength came to me.

Finally, the Emperor groaned and said, "Love, it appears, is my only hope."

With this confession, the might of the Emperor flowed to me.

The Emperor was powerful in life, and his spirit in death was equally strong. With his contribution, I shattered the prison trying to close around me and turned my energies toward Hask. I confess, I enjoyed choking the life from that miserable reptile scum. It squeezed from him with delicious slowness, and he made a miserable croaking sound as he died.

As soon as his spark of life was extinguished, Yoda and Obi-Wan found me. Their timing, as always, was impeccable.

"There," I said, pointing a spectral finger toward the glimmering remnant of Hask. "Take Hask to your spiritual prison."

It gratified me to see that they obeyed.

"Now," I said, taking Padmé's hand. "We need to rescue Luke."

"Freed from the grip of Hask, already he is," Yoda said.

"I want to make sure," I said.

We returned, Padmé and I, with our whole company--the Gungan boss, the wookie chieftain, the Tuskan, and the Emperor. All served me then, bound to me with the full power of the Dark Side. But as much as it gratified me to bend them to my will, I remembered all too well what it was like to be in their place. I knew what I had to do when this was over.