Anneke rushed Dooku, and he flicked his wrist, tossing Obi Wan over the edge of the balcony. He fell in a heap on the lower level and lay still. She could feel his Force presence still; he was alive, but unconscious. Anneke spun into a kick, pushing Dooku with the Force as her foot connected, sending the Sith Lord after Obi Wan over the edge. She followed, landing lightly beside Dooku as he regained his feet. Their sabers crashed together, sending red and blue sparks flying.
"I sense great fear in you, Skywalker," Dooku said, his voice mocking. "You have hate and anger, but you don't know how to use them."
Anneke let out a short bark of laughter. "Yes, I do." She twisted her blade against his, knocking him off balance with the Force, and for just a second, his guard was open. Instantly, she brought her blade down, slicing through his wrist. He stared at his severed hand as it fell to the floor, and a wild exultation raged through her. She snatched the falling red lightsaber from the air as he fell to his knees before her, and brought both blades together in an x just below his chin. "I am twice as powerful as when last we met, Count."
He sneered at her. "Twice the pride; double the fall."
Her hands clenched on the saber hilts. The rage within her was so intense that she was shaking. This was the man who had sentenced Padraig to die, who had nearly killed her master… twice. "I'm not the one who has fallen." With a quick, scissor-like motion, she brought both blades together, slicing off his head.
"Good, Anneke. Good." The Chancellor's voice jerked her head up, and she stared at him, her breath coming in gasps. "You did well."
"I…shouldn't have done that." It was difficult to think, as if her mind were stumbling through darkness. She stared at her hands, still gripping the two lightsaber hilts. They were shaking.
Palpatine tutted. "He was too dangerous to be kept alive."
She shook her head, trying to clear it. "He was defeated and unarmed. This is not the Jedi way."
"It is only justice, young Skywalker. He cut off your arm, and you cut off his. And he would have killed you given the chance. You were merely faster than he." Palpatine inclined his head. "Now, if you could assist me…?"
"Of–of course." As if moving through a dream, Anneke clipped both lightsabers to her belt, and reached out with the Force to release the Chancellor's bindings. Part of her yet gloried in her triumph over Dooku, though another part shrank in horror from what she had done, avoiding the grisly sight of the body lying on the deck.
Palpatine stood and straightened his clothes. "We must leave before more security droids arrive."
"Wait." Anneke went to Obi Wan's side, and knelt to check on him.
"Anneke, there is no time." Palpatine had crossed the room and stood by the elevator. "We must get off the ship."
Anneke ignored him. "No broken bones," she muttered. "He's breathing all right."
"Leave him," Palpatine insisted, "or we'll never make it."
She glared at him and, for a second, thought she saw a flicker of satisfaction in his eyes, but it was gone so quickly, she might have imagined it. Drawing on the Force to assist her, she lifted her master's limp, unresponsive body over her left shoulder.
Palpatine jabbed at the elevator call button, but nothing happened. Just as Anneke reached him, the ship's gravity turned sideways and the doors slid open. Catching the edge of the opening, Anneke hauled herself and Obi Wan inside the now horizontal elevator shaft. "Come on," she said to Palpatine, who was awkwardly following her. "We have to be fast."
The Chancellor was surprisingly nimble for his age. Then Anneke remembered that he was from Naboo, like Padraig, and they were both politicians. She hid a smile. Her husband still surprised her sometimes with the things he could do. Politicians on Naboo had a very eclectic education.
For just a moment, she allowed herself to feel how much she missed Padraig. The war in the Outer Rim had dragged on and on. It had been four months since she had seen him, and then they'd had one night before she shipped out again. And before that, she hadn't seen him for nearly a year. Once they escaped this ship, and returned Palpatine to the Senate, she would see him again. She wanted… needed to talk to him.
She banished thoughts of Padraig as the floor beneath her feet began to tip. The gravity was righting itself, and this would soon be a wall again. She frantically looked for a door, but could see nothing. She lost her feet and began to slide. Grabbing blindly for something to arrest her fall, her mechanical hand caught hold of a broken control box on the wall. As he slid past her, Palpatine seized her ankle. The gravity chose that moment to right itself completely, leaving them hanging over an abyss that vanished into darkness.
Obi Wan groaned and tried to lift his head. Tightening her grip on him, Anneke said, "Easy, Master. We're in a bit of a situation."
"Did I miss something?" He asked wryly.
Anneke snorted in laughter. Then the gravity tilted again, tipping them on an angle. A hissing groan sounded from above, and she looked up to see the elevator car racing down through the gloom. "Jump!" she yelled, and let go of the control panel.
Sliding down the sharply tilted wall, Anneke was grateful that Obi Wan was recovered enough that she no longer needed to carry him. He slid beside her, both of them using the Force to speed their descent and, that of the Chancellor, who looked about to faint.
Spotting an open door on the side of the shaft ahead, Anneke grabbed Palpatine's arm. Obi Wan saw her intention, and grabbed his other arm. They pushed off the wall and swung through the door, landing heavily in the hallway outside. As they picked themselves up, the elevator car roared past.
Obi Wan helped the Chancellor to his feet. "Let's see if we can find something in the hangar that's still flyable."
The hangar was a wreck. The shifts in gravity had tossed everything around, smashing it to bits. Palpatine gazed around in horror. "What are we going to do?"
"Head toward the bridge," Obi Wan said. "Maybe we can find an escape pod."
A glittering barrier erupted before Anneke in the hallway, and she skidded to a stop. Obi Wan stopped beside her and Palpatine nearly ran into them. Turning around, she sighed. There was an identical barrier behind them. "Ray shields." She blew out her breath in an annoyed gust.
Captured again. Anneke glared at the hideous skeletal droid known as General Grievous. She refused to admit defeat. He had brought them to the bridge, and that is exactly where they wanted to be, after all.
"That wasn't much of a rescue," Grievous wheezed. He held their lightsabers, fingering them with his metal, spider-like hands. "General Kenobi, the Negotiator... and Anneke Skywalker—I was expecting someone of your reputation to be… older." His voice was derisive.
"General Grievous," Anneke said coldly. "I expected you to be taller."
"Jedi scum," he rasped, his skull-like face gazing down at her, expressionless, yet somehow conveying fury.
Obi Wan gave her a quelling look. "Anneke, don't provoke him."
Grievous laughed harshly. "Your lightsabers will make a fine addition to my collection."
"Not this time," Obi Wan said.
On cue, R2D2 rolled into the room, shooting sparks that bounced off the walls and ceiling, generally creating chaos.
Calling his lightsaber to his hand, Obi Wan cut his own, then Anneke's bonds. She reached out and called her own saber, activating the blade as it came.
"Crush them!" Grievous croaked. His droid bodyguards advanced on the Jedi, spinning electrified staves before them.
Out of the corner of her eye, Anneke saw two battle droids dragging Chancellor Palpatine off the bridge. Beside her, Obi Wan engaged with one of the bodyguards. Drawing heavily on the Force, Anneke leapt forward, and slashed the other bodyguard in half, then ran after Palpatine. Power raging through her, she easily cut down the battle droids, then turned back to assist her master.
Obi Wan had finished off the other bodyguard, and stood facing Grievous. The deck beneath their feet dropped suddenly, and the pilot yelled, "We're falling out of orbit. All aft control cells are dead!"
Grievous didn't take his eyes off Obi Wan. "Stay on course," he ordered. "Keep the ship in orbit." He picked up an electrified staff. "You lose, General Kenobi."
"Sir!" The pilot's voice was panicked. "The ship is breaking up!"
Grievous turned and flung the staff at the fore window, smashing it, and leaping through the hole. For a few seconds, a rushing wind tore through the bridge until a blast shield snapped into place over the broken window. The pilot and the navigator stood as one man and ran from the bridge.
"The hull is burning up!" Palpatine pointed out the window.
Anneke half fell into the navigator's chair. Pulling up schematics on the computer, she groaned. "All the escape pods have been launched."
Obi Wan came up to stand behind her. "Can you fly a cruiser like this?
Anneke snorted. "Do you mean, do I know how to land what's left of it?" She switched chairs to the pilot's seat.
"Well?" Obi Wan said as calmly as if he were asking about the weather. "Do you?"
"Under the circumstances, I'd say the ability to pilot this thing is irrelevant." She ran her hands over the controls, figuring out where everything was. "Strap yourselves in."
