After The Malevolence was destroyed:
"Well," Padme brushed a bit of hair back from her face with a small, sheepish smile. "Wasn't that a rush?" Anakin glanced behind his pilot's seat at her incredulously.
True, part of the reason he loved Padme was because she was no stranger to taking action, it still did not mean he was letting her off so easy for getting captured board The Malevolence in the first blasted place. She could have been killed!
Obi-wan, though, only chuckled softly. "Yes, it was. Tell me something Senator, what in the blazes are you doing out here?" he asked pleasurably. Anakin could have smiled himself. Padme shifted uncomfortably. "I was sent on a diplomatic mission to these coordinates by Chancellor Palpatine," she explained.
Anakin frowned; the Chancellor had sent her here? "That doesn't make any sense," Obi-wan said, picking up on his thoughts. "The Chancellor knew the battle was out in this quadrant, why would he send you this way?" he asked. Padme shrugged, still holding tightly unto their seats as they headed back to Anakin's cruiser, The Resolute.
"I haven't the slightest clue, Master Kenobi. Perhaps he thought you were done with…" She trailed off. "What exactly are you all doing out here?" She asked. "Destroying a giant Separatists ship that was terrorizing republic cruisers," Anakin answered. Artoo whirred slowly.
"Ahsoka," Obi-wan said, nodding towards Anakin's comm. link. "Who?" Padme asked. Anakin smiled dully. He had not had a chance to speak of Ahsoka to his wife yet. He had not seen her since he had gotten a padawan. "My apprentice," he explained quickly.
Her mouth fell open in a very un-senator like way. "You got an apprentice and you didn't tell me?" She squeaked indignantly. "I had no time!" Anakin defended, shooting her a warning look. Obi-wan was sitting right there, after all.
Anakin tapped the button on his comm. link and Ahsoka's voice burst out before Anakin could say a word. "Master!" She cried. "You blew up The Malevolence!" She said excitedly. "Yes," Anakin agreed simply.
"Nice work! The clones are still cheering, you know. Oh, and Master Plo wanted me to ask you if you saved Senator Amidala?" Anakin smiled. "We did. She's coming aboard with us," he reported.
"Alright, I'll tell him. Is everyone okay?" Padme was straining to hear, at Ahsoka's question her eyebrows rose in approval. "We're all fine, Snips. Did you manage to track Grievous? He escaped," he asked. Obi-wan nodded in agreement. "No, he blocked our radars from following him for too long," his teeth clenched, that monster was still at large!
"But on the bright side, I won the bet!" Ahsoka told him enthusiastically. Anakin exchanged a look with Obi-wan, bet? "What bet?" He asked.
"Oh, Rex, Cody, and Admiral Yularen said that you two would probably blow up the ship with yourselves in it. I said-like a loyal padawan, noted- you would get out alive, blow up the ship and save the senator. Even so, they did not believe me; I won any- hay, Rex! I'm talking! No! no fair, Rex! Rex!" She suddenly shouted, her words slightly muffled (as if her mouth were being covered by a gloved hand, mysteriously), before the line was cut off.
Anakin heard Obi-wan laugh softly beside him. Anakin smiled and shook his head. "Betrayed by our own men," he snickered. Padme smiled. "I assume you two have a record of not making it out of ships easily?" She asked. "We like to blow things up," Anakin said with a shrug.
"Correction, you blow things up, Anakin. I only run in trying to save you from the catastrophe you created with your explosion. Why, I have no clue, force knows the council has glared at me enough for it, but…." Anakin cut him off by jolting the ship lightly. It only made Padme jump a bit, not very surprised, but for Obi-wan, who by no means liked to fly, he visibly paled.
Anakin struggled to keep in his laughter as he glanced at him. "What? A… Minor defect, master," he said, barely managing to keep the laughter from his voice. "Very funny, Anakin," Obi-wan replied with a small smile of his own.
Padme turned to him, still not willing to let the padawan issue go. "I thought you told me you didn't want an apprentice?" She asked. Anakin shrugged and looked at Obi-wan, who was busy flicking switches above his head and was pretending not to be listening.
"Ah, yes. I did say that. I changed my mind when I met her though. You'll like her Padme. She's going to give me a hard time, and I have to learn some patience fast, but that is why you picked her, huh, Obi-wan?" Said Jedi master didn't reply but only smiled.
Padme looked between the two, unreservedly confused, but only sighed and shook her head. "Never mind, I'm sure you'll tell me later," she said. Anakin smiled, he would tell her the whole story later.
Padme looked at him for a moment, her hazel eyes thoughtful before she studied Obi-wan. And then she looked ahead at the fleet waiting for them. "All of those are yours?" She asked. "No; only three. The others are Obi-wan's and Master Plo's. three Jedi fleets," He explained, looking at her curiously. He could tell she was thinking about something.
"Those ships are enormous," She awed. "Most ships are," he pointed out teasingly. She gave him a 'yes, I knew that' look, making him snicker. "This is odd," she said at last, her tone of voice giving Anakin the impression that he was about to hear just why she had been studying them a moment ago.
"What is?" Obi-wan asked. "I feel like we're in a book. A weird, cruel, just plain horrible book; but good in its own way," oh, force, she was getting poetic now. They were both going to die. "Chapter one started on Tatooine," she smiled at him and ruffled his hair as if he were still ten. "And force knows where the last chapter will end," she sighed.
"Hopefully at the end of this war," Obi-wan said as they finally, finally got to The Resolute. The clones stood in the hangar bay below, cheering. Anakin smiled at them through the window, but his mind stayed on what Padme had said. A book, well, that could be true.
Force knows some pretty good books have been written about the life of a Jedi. But their book, it would be above and beyond expectation. Dramatic, sad, and yet…. Triumphant, in a weird sort of way. It could be a saga, even. They were the survivors from chapter one. And new characters had joined the fight, yep, that sounded like a good book. Even one he would read.
And though Anakin hoped there would be an end to this war in his lifetime, he wasn't sure that the end of the Clone war would be the end of the book for them. Not them; oh no. There would be more plots, more Sith and Jedi and more action. Most importantly, there would be more them.
Anakin smiled as the ship landed and Obi-wan was the first out of his seat. Artoo beeped excitedly as the ramp was lowered. Maybe this was a saga, an odd saga that some odd people founded but it prospered because it was just so weird. Interesting. Only, what would they name it?
Maybe, he contemplated, staring at the endless space behind them. Maybe Star Wars, The Clone wars.