A/N: Thanks for reading everyone and I hope you enjoy this chapter. If you don't, let me know why not so I can try and not make the same mistakes next chapter? Also-I just discovered that apparently we're going to be having story covers on here now? If anyone has any idea on how to make cool ones and would be willing to explain how to me or if, for some crazy reason, you want to make one for me, please, please, please let me know! Anyway, thanks again guys, hope you enjoy! Oh. Also...

WARNING (I suppose...): The next few chapters are battle(ish). That means people die. So just be warned. :)

To Save the Queen

Chapter #35: War

My heart was pounding and I felt strangely detached from my own body.

The Yellow Man was dead.

Nineta had been hit in the arm and many of our pilots were now on their way to try and shoot down the droid control ship.

I had gotten through the hanger without a scratch on me. I had caught a few glimpses of the Jedi, Eirtaé, Padmé, Rabé and Panaka and they had all seemed fine.

We were really trying to take back Naboo.

And the Yellow Man was dead.

Nineta's footsteps and those of the five pilots who had joined our group were steady behind me and in front of me as we jogged down the hallway and dodged the droids lying on the ground after we'd blasted them.

In front of us were the doors leading to the Security Headquarters where all of the video feeds in the palace were located. The doors were shut and we had killed all of the droids who had been in charge of guarding the room. There hadn't been that many of them, surprisingly.

As we neared the doors, I darted over to where the keypad was and, with my hands, signaled the pilots with me off to either side of the door. Then, I typed in the first four digits of the code and quickly signaled them to be ready to fire.

I entered the last digit.

There were five blaster shots and the sound of thudding bodies. I looked up from the keypad to see one of the pilots lying on the ground. Another pilot was bent over him, looking pale and horrified.

"All clear," Nineta announced from inside the control center.

"Is he alive?" I asked the crouching pilot.

He shook his head wordlessly.

I closed my eyes—two dead from my group—and then opened them. I wasn't really sure what to do—what did you do when someone died for you?

"I am sorry," I finally said, opening my eyes and trying to somehow let him see how sorry I really was. The pilot on the ground nodded at me a little dazedly. Hesitating (What was a Queen's reaction to this? What would Padmé do? Did it really even matter?), I slowly put my hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently before walking around him and entering the control room.

The Yellow Man and the Dead Pilot were not helping me do my job, so I very carefully and very determinedly shoved all thoughts of them into the very back of my mind and resolved to think of them later.

There were three dead Neimoidians lying in various positions around the control room. I studiously ignored them as I walked up to the main screen. Behind me, I heard Nineta give some orders to the others, but I focused on what I had to do next.

Tapping out a few orders and a few codes, I pulled up the security systems that Veta, Sené, Ranamé, and Sagé, the handmaidens mainly in charge of security, had created. As a principle handmaiden, I knew all of the necessary codes and, within a few moments, there was a small click and a door off to the side of the control room suddenly appeared where there hadn't been one before.

I briskly strode over to it, and placed my thumb on the scanner. The door opened with a small whoosh and revealed another, larger, security console. Then, I hurriedly closed the Handmaiden Security Center on the main screen of the first control room and, once again, erased all evidence of its existence.

By that time, the dead Neimoidians were all piled up in a corner (don't look at the corner, don't look at the corner, don't look at the corner…) and the Dead Pilot had been carefully laid out inside the room. The pilot who had been crouching next to him as well as two others had their blasters at the ready and were guarding the control room. Nineta and another pilot with bright blue eyes were staring at me expectantly.

"Come along," I ordered somewhat awkwardly before briskly turning on heel and leading into the Handmaiden's security center.

I heard Nineta and Blue-Eyes following me in.

A few minutes later, Nineta was monitoring the palace hallways and relaying to Blue-Eyes how the battle for the palace was progressing while Blue-Eyes passed the information on to Green group, occasionally ordering them to help out certain areas where the fighting had slowed.

I was searching the security systems for the locations and security protections on the prisoner of war camps and for any information on the whereabouts of Saché, Yané, the rest of the handmaidens and Governor Bibble. The information on the camps was easily found and quickly downloaded for Panaka to view later.

Information about Saché, Yané, Wicaté, the Governor and the rest was much more elusive.

Come on, come on, come on, I silently begged, as I scrolled through the data, bypassing security measures and searching for any evidence of newly created files. They had to be in the system somewhere. In order to use the cells in the palace—or anywhere in Naboo, really—the proper codes and documentation needed to be entered into the system, or else the cells wouldn't open. Furthermore, in the palace itself, there was a log for every door in the palace that documented when it had been used. In the major doorways, there were pictures taken of the people using it. All of this was stored in the database. If the handmaidens and the Governor were alive, they would be in the system somewhere.

They had to be in the system. They had to be.

"Stars, am I glad the Jedi are on our side," Nineta breathed off to my left.

Blue-Eyes let out a low, impressed whistle.

I glanced up from my research to see him staring at the security feed coming from the pits where Theed's power generators were kept.

There, darting and dancing about on the narrow catwalks between the generators, were Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn, battling a man with a double-bladed lightsaber. It was incredible.

I was suddenly hit with an intense longing to have seen Kenobi practice up close. I was sure that if I had asked him while we'd been on Tatooine he would have practiced in front of me. Maybe even given me a few tips on fighting myself. That would have been—

I jerked my eyes away from the generator room and instead stared at the screen of one of the palace hallways

"Did they just—?" Blue-Eyes asked faintly.

"Meaning no offense, your highness, but that handmaiden of yours is—" Nineta trailed off as Padmé, Panaka and several of the pilots suddenly disappeared from that feed, having broken through a window and then—yes, sure enough, they reappeared in the hallway directly above the one they'd been in before.

In the hall below, I could see Eirtaé let out the curse I was trying very hard to keep in as she and Rabé kept firing at the droids, occasionally gaping at the window Padmé had been in only moments before.

"Green group is going to help them?" I asked Nineta, trying to sound calm while inwardly I seethed. Padmé and Panaka would need as much back-up as they could get if they wanted to survive this.

What was Padmé thinking? I wondered furiously, as Nineta quickly answered in the positive. She wasn't supposed to hare off on her own without her handmaidens! Almost the entire point of her having handmaidens was so that they could follow her when she did something crazy and then make sure she didn't die! They couldn't do that if she disappeared through a window without them!

With great effort, I stopped myself from letting out a loud huff and forced the dread that was slowly building up to the very back of my mind, along with Yellow Man, the Dead Pilot and the pile of Neimoidians. Then, knowing that nothing good could come of me watching Padmé, I forced myself back to searching for any trace of the handmaidens and the Governor.

I purposefully ignored the small mutters coming from both Nineta and Blue-Eyes, some of which sounded negative, others positive and instead did my best to immerse myself in the files.

My eyes were beginning to blur as I repeated the same motions over and over again, slowly checking the pictures for each and every door, slowly working back towards the day we'd left Naboo.

Suddenly, my heart leapt and I stopped the procession of pictures.

There, staring back at me, was Yané. She was holding her head high in the air as she walked through one of the entrances leading to the oldest and most obscure of the cell blocks in the palace. It was dated from only a day ago.

I very nearly let out a whoosh of air and bit my lip to stop myself from cackling with glee.

I looked up, almost desperate to share my good news. Only, just then, I heard the small cackle from Blue-Eyes' comm link saying, "We're here."

I glanced at the feeds to see our third group run in behind Eirtaé and Rabé's group.

"What are they doing there?" I asked sharply, all my happiness at seeing Yané disappearing as my fingers turned to ice. They were supposed to be helping and protecting Padmé, not Eirtaé and Rabé.

"They're—er, they're back up, your highness…" Nineta answered slowly.

"Why are they not with Padmé and Panaka?" I demanded, struggling to keep sounding like the Queen.

It was getting harder and harder to ignore the small pocket of dread in my chest. The droids were still active. Padmé was without Eirtaé and Rabé. Our fighting force in the palace had been split in two. And there was still no trace of Saché or Governor Bibble anywhere.

"Um… Well, begging your pardon, your highness, but the group with, er, Padmé and Panaka in it aren't really getting attacked at all and the other group, the one Green group just joined, they're sort of getting mobbed. So, we thought…" Nineta trailed off as I stared at him.

Of course.

Without knowing that Padmé was the Queen, there wasn't a lot of sense in sending Green Group after Padmé and Panaka, especially because Eirtaé, Rabé and the others were the ones being attacked so viciously.

Except—

"You are, of course," I said as calmly and Queenly as I possibly could while my stomach was rolling, "correct. However, Padmé is also the only one apart from myself who can begin to negotiate with the Federation. Furthermore, they are closer to the Viceroy, which makes them of a higher priority, even if it would be more difficult for Green group to—"

Nineta interrupted me with one of the nastiest swear words I'd ever heard.

My head snapped towards him and then towards the screens.

I froze. Destroyers. I let loose the worst curse I knew.

I didn't even stop to think about what Nineta or Blue-Eyes thought about their Queen's cursing habits—I was already out the door and sprinting past the three guards we'd set, drawing my blaster as I went.

I heard shouts behind me. Ignoring whatever it was that they were saying—probably demands that I come back and stay safe and sound holed up in that thrice cursed control room—I yelled back, "You can stay here or follow me, but I'm going!"

Padmé and Panaka had gone and got themselves caught and were no doubt about to be led to the Viceroy.

We were in almost the exact same position as we had been in before we'd escaped from Naboo the first time, only now the Viceroy had captured the real Queen instead of the Decoy. They would try and make her sign the treaty.

But that wasn't going to happen. We weren't going to lose and the Viceroy wasn't going to hurt Padmé.

Not while I was still breathing.

I picked up my pace as I sprinted down the familiar halls to where I knew Eirtaé, Rabé and Green group would be fighting.

Then, together, we could save the queen.