Disclaimer: Everything belongs to George Lucas blah blah blah.
"Hm, an interesting discovery this is, Senator," Yoda said, the green orbs of his eyes flicking over the information on the datapad. The orbs slid up to focus on Padme and the wrinkled creature made a tiny croaking noise in the back of his throat. "Grave danger, I fear, Master Skywalker is in."
"So you believe me," Padme said. Despite the repercussions this could cause if the information indeed was true, she was relieved she wasn't just paranoid.
"Sense this, I should have. A great power it is for a soul to transfer bodies, but heard of it, this power I have."
"So what can we do?" Ahsoka asked. Yoda's pointy ears drooped to the ground and it seemed the rest of his wrinkled face drooped as well. He shook his ancient head and said, "Know how to stop him, I do not."
"Then we have to warn them. Now," Padme said forcefully.
"The only place with their coordinates is the war room," Ahsoka said calmly.
"Then let's go," Padme said, turning and nearly running out of the room. Though she was significantly taller than Padme, Ahsoka found herself out of breath trying to match her quick strides. Suddenly everything shook and a deafening crack sounded through the building. Without skipping a beat, Ahsoka grabbed Padme and pulled her to the ground before she could fall to it. There was another explosion and the building rattled again. Jedi ran through the hallway with such urgency most of them didn't notice the two women plastered to the floor.
"Hey," Ahsoka said, struggling to rise to her feet and trying to get the attention of a young padawan running past them. A tall Jedi with hair the color of fire bumped into Ahsoka, nearly knocking her back to the floor.
"Ahsoka," he said, grabbing her shoulders to try and steady her.
"Axel." Though she had to yell over the noise, she sounded relieved. For a moment, she got light-headed just by being so close to him. Just by feeling his hands on her shoulders. He was human, quite a nice looking human if Ahsoka had anything to say about it, with bright orange hair that nearly matched her skin and emerald green eyes that sparkled with mischief. Even when he wasn't smiling he seemed like he was laughing. She loved that. They stood close like that for a minute until he realized where his hands were lingering and pulled them away to run the back of his neck. He smiled sheepishly at her and Ahsoka fought to keep from rolling her eyes in exasperation. He was so incredibly shy and awkward around her sometimes. She had feelings for him, he knew that. There was no reason for him to be embarrassed about returning those feelings.
"Axel," she said again, regaining her grip on reality. "What's going on?"
"I'm not really sure, but it looks like the Temple is being attacked by the Five Worlds."
"Then we need to gather all the masters that are here and form an organized defense. Let's get down there and start giving orders. Padme, I know I'm going against my mandate to protect you but I must get down there and fight. Get to the war room and contact Anakin's fleet. Tell him what's going on. Lock yourself in there and stay until I come. Okay?"
Anakin stood on the bridge to watch the colossal battle ensue infront of him. Occasionally he would bark orders to the clones standing by, but other than that, today he was simply watching. So far the attack was going quite well. He and Rose had even been able to test their team working skills. His expert piloting mixed with her precise shots proved to form a near unstoppable duo that was impressive to even the stoic Obi-Wan.
Watching the battle in front of him, however, was turning out to be about as useless as trying to teach master Yoda correct speech patterns. All he could see was gray circles and triangles shooting red lines at each other. Occasionally one shape would shoot at another and a large orange, yellow, and red cloud would erupt in its wake. He wasn't even sure which shapes he should be rooting for, but his advisors reading data off of complicated machines told him that the battle was going very well.
"Anakin," a heavily accented and serious voice said behind him, pulling him away from the diluted battle scene. He smiled when he saw the voices origin, "Obi-Wan." His friend didn't return the smile. In fact, he looked more serious than Anakin had ever seen. He almost looked…sad. Anakin only ever thought of Obi-Wan as having three emotions: happy, serious, and indifferent-if those could even be considered emotions. He had never actually seen him sad. Upset, yes, quite often, but never sad or anything more than annoyed.
"What's wrong?" Anakin asked after Obi-Wan offered no response to his greeting. He didn't look at Anakin, only focused his attention on the battle scene with his hand covering his mouth. He finally turned away from the action to face Anakin. Instead of looking at his face, though, he looked down at his boots.
"We just got a message from…from the Temple," he said to his shoes. "And um…well, I guess the question is, do you want the bad news or the awful news first?" He finally looked Anakin in his face, sad light-blue eyes meeting piercing bright ones of the same color.
"I guess the bad news first."
"Naboo is being attacked, the Temple has been a real point of interest. They knew that we were going to attack them and that because of this, some of our best troops weren't going to be there to fight." He paused and rubbed his eyes while Anakin gaped at him, unable to speak. When Anakin finally found his voice he asked, "If that's the bad news, what's the awful news?" Obi-Wan took a deep breath and looked away. Why did he have to be the one to tell him this? The woman was his whole world, his life.
"It's Padme," he managed to croak out. He chanced a glance at Anakin's face and found that it was completely drained of color, which didn't make it easy for him to continue talking. "Ahsoka was the one who informed us of this. Apparently she and Padme were in the Temple speaking with Yoda when they attacked. Ahsoka told Padme to go to the war room and hide until she got back so Ahsoka could help fight. When…when she got back Padme wasn't there and now she can't find her."
"What?" Anakin practically yelled, causing the others in the room to look around for the source of the commotion. "Why would Ahsoka leave her alone? First of all, she knows Padme well enough to be aware that she wont run and hide if her life depended on it-which in this case it does. Second, that creep is trying to assassinate her and what if he just got his chance?" Anakin's voice broke and he looked down, closing his eyes for a moment to regain control. "Assemble a small army. A quarter of the troops we have here. Make sure they're the best ones. Use the 501st legion and others. Leave the 212th attack battalion here. Use your judgment for where other troops should go," he said quietly, staring back at the battle for a moment before beginning to walk quickly out of the room with square shoulders and clenched fists.
"Where are you going?"
"To find Padme," he said without turning around or stopping.
Sorry this chapter is so short, I just wanted to gear up for the next one which will be more intense. Tell me what you think, I always appreciate feedback.