Back with another chapter! Hope you enjoy! Italics are lines from the movie. I obviously don't own Star Wars, I'm just seeing how it would've played out with my little twists.

Episode II- Attack of the Clones, Part 7

Even with the distance between them, their eyes met, and his bright blue gaze felt like a cool rain that soothed her withered heart. He was pale and bruised, but so wonderfully alive! Shocked as he was to see her, his lips parted to breathe her name. She resisted the urge to jump out of the cart as they passed by, but her heart was pounding in her chest in an effort to escape it's cage and run to him.

For his part, Obi-Wan projected the calm he wished he felt as he watched Padme and Anakin be led to their own posts. Anakin was dragged to the one beside his. "I was beginning to wonder if you had gotten my message," he called, all the while keeping an eye on Padme out of his peripheral.

"I retransmitted it as you requested, Master. Then we decided to come and rescue you," Anakin told him as his hands were chained high above his head, just like Obi-Wan's were.

"Oh," Obi-Wan nodded, looking up at his own bound wrists. "Good job."

He'd like to say he was angry with his apprentice for dragging Padme into this mess, but knowing her, she just as likely may have dragged Anakin. Nothing to do about it now but get out alive.

The crowd is deafening in their applause as the executions began. "I have a bad feeling about this," Anakin muttered. Three monsters entered the arena. A reek was being prodded to charge straight for him, a nexu for Padme, and an acklay toward Obi-Wan.

"Take the one on the left," Obi-Wan ordered his apprentice. "I'll take the one on the right."

"What about Padme?"

Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow at him in disbelief. All this time with her, and Anakin still underestimated her. "She seems to be on top of things."

Both Jedi glanced up at Padme, who had climbed to stand at the top of her post, trying to wrestle the chain free. Obi-Wan smirks with pride, then ducks behind his own post when the acklay charges. With a giant green claw, the monster strikes, snapping the chain. Obi-Wan dodges left and right, narrowly missing the sharp claws. He can hear the crowd's growing displeasure. He can sense it as well as Dooku's annoyance. But that's not the only thing he can sense. Padme's fear rippled through the Force, as well as her anger. He quickly glanced up to see the nexu at the top of the post, and he swore his heart stopped when a giant paw reached up and slashed it's claws across her back. He saw her manage to beat it back with her chain before the acklay switched tactics, ramming into the post instead. It toppled to the ground and Obi-Wan only just managed to roll away in time. He ran, calling upon the Force as a picador comes charging past on an orray. Obi-Wan grabbed the electric spear from the picador, who went flying off the creature and rolling through the sand. The acklay stabbed the picador with a mighty claw and continued pursuing Obi-Wan.

Stopping a good distance away, he threw the spear at the monster, striking it's neck. With a mighty shriek, it pulled the spear free and snapped it in half with its teeth.

"Sith spawn!" he hissed, and tried not to dwell on how Anakin had rubbed off on him.

From the corner of his eye, Obi-Wan saw Anakin and Padme riding the reek. He ran towards them, using the Force to jump onto it's back and land behind Padme. She reached back to steady him with a hand on his thigh. He placed his own hand just above her elbow on the opposite side. The connection grounded and centered him in a way he had not felt since she left Coruscant. He carefully shielded such thoughts from his apprentice, who was likely too busy steering the reek away from the pursuing acklay to notice anyway. Obi-Wan took a moment to glance at Padme's back. His gut twisted when he saw the claw marks, but thankfully they didn't look too deep. A few bacta patches she'd be good as new. Now to get out of the arena. Which suddenly looked far more difficult as battle droids rolled out to meet them.


What would later be known as the Battle of Genosis, was mostly a blur to Obi-Wan. It was as though it was over and they were safely aboard the ship even before it began. He remembered later, how angry he had felt when he saw the carnage around him. So many jedi were slaughtered. Some in their first years of knighthood whom he had known since they first arrived at the temple as younglings. In the moment, he let his anger fuel his actions, and that knowledge weighed heavily on his heart. It was when he saw Padme and Anakin, fighting with everything they had, that he was able to let go of his anger and focus instead on protecting them. Protecting them and getting them to safety. But it wasn't until Master Yoda arrived with gunships and clones that the tide of the battle turned in their favor.

Squinting through the dust, Obi-Wan could just make out a dark figure on a speeder below them. "Look over there," he told Anakin.

"It's Dooku," Anakin confirmed. He shouted to the gunman, "Shoot him down!"

"We're out of rockets, sir."

"Follow them," his padawan ordered.

"We're gonna need some help," Padme cautioned.

Obi-Wan shook his head, keeping his eyes on Dooku. "There isn't time. Anakin and I can handle this."

Dooku signaled for the two pilots beside him to move out. They came around behind them so fast, there was no time to react. They started taking fire, knocking their ship off course with a direct hit. Anakin and Obi-Wan managed to hold on, but Padme lost her grip. Obi-Wan heard her scream as she fell, and the blood in his veins ran cold.

"Padme!" Anakin cried, lunging toward the side of the ship. Obi-Wan followed after him, grabbing his arm and pulling him back. "Put the ship down!"

"Anakin!" he shouted over Anakin's panicked orders. "Don't let your personal feelings get in the way!" Not for the first time, he was just as much reminding himself as he was his apprentice. He felt sick as he ordered the pilot, "Follow that speeder!"

Anakin ignored him. "Lower the ship!"

"I can't take Dooku alone," Obi-Wan reminded him. "I need you! If we catch him, we can end this war right now! We have a job to do!"

"I don't care! Put the ship down!"

Obi-Wan was getting more frustrated by the minute. It was clear their time on Naboo had only strengthened Anakin's feeling for Padme. "You will be expelled from the Jedi Order!"

"I can't leave her!"

Obi-Wan couldn't allow himself to think like that. They had a job to do. Padme could take care of herself. She'd proven that time and time again. She'd be fine. "Come to your senses! What do you think Padme would do were she in your position?"

Finally, something got through to his apprentice. Anakin seemed to deflate as the reality of his master's words sunk in. "She would do her duty."

Obi-Wan sighed in relief and turned to the pilot. "Follow that speeder."