With Artoo safely watching the Starfighters (Padmé had a feeling that Obi-Wan's would not be flying his off the ship, just another checkmark of things that went wrong on this mission that she wouldn't be on if it wasn't absolutely necessary), Padmé and Obi-Wan began to make their way through the Separatist ship, watching each other's back as they advanced through the hallway, attempting to use the Force to find the Chancellor and Dooku.
"This is getting nowhere fast." Obi-Wan frowned as they came to an elevator. Padmé was inclined to agree, which meant requesting a little bit of assistance.
She pulled out the comm, calling her Droid for guidance. "Artoo? Do you have a map we can use?" The Droid beeped at them moments later. "He says that Dooku should be in the control deck."
"Good job, Artoo, always reliable." Obi-Wan smiled. Padmé shook her head, though she knew he appreciated the Droid just as much as she did. "You may have faith in him, but he was still reprogrammed by Anakin."
"And Anakin did a very good job programming him." Even if it meant the little droid inherited some of Anakin's more...erratic tendencies and risky flight maneuvers. "Besides, he got us the info we needed, right?"
"Yes, I suppose he did. Now are we going to be debating the merits of your droid's ability to read maps or go after the Sith Lord holding the Chancellor captive." Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow as though he was expecting this to be a cover for something more.
"Be my guest, somebody needs to summon the elevator if we want to keep going." Padmé waited for Obi-Wan to press the button, but before the elevator opened up, a single bolt of energy fired at the two of them, causing them both to turn around.
"Destroyers." Without so much as a second thought, Padmé immediately took to defending Obi-Wan from the blasts, reflecting them with her lightsaber as her former master started banging on the metal doors. "Obi-Wan, that's not going to work."
"Do you know of any other way to summon the elevator to us, my Padawan?" Before she could answer his question, the elevator doors opened, and Obi-Wan indicated for her to enter. She ran in, Obi-Wan behind her as he deflected some blaster bolts back at the droids until the elevator closed and started its rapid ascent.
"Halt." Padmé turned around, her eyes locking on a small group of B1 Battle Droids, their blasters raised. "Drop your weapons." Without so much as a shared glance, she and Obi-Wan fell into sync with one another slashing through the droids nearby them and making quick work of them, and it wasn't long before they were turned into scrap metal littering the floor of the elevator.
They were silent for a moment before Padmé laughed under her breath. "Roger." Followed by Obi-Wan calling back, a smile on his face. With nothing but the elevator ride up to focus on, it felt nice to at least break some of the tension that was building up, to find a moment to breathe even in the coming battle ahead.
But then again, that was why Padmé had enjoyed fighting with Ahsoka so much, and with Obi-Wan. Even in the darkest of moments, they still found a reason to smile. It made the battles just a little more bearable in all of this.
Before they could enjoy the joking atmosphere, the elevator stopped midway to their destination. "It stopped?" she asked, looking at Obi-Wan.
"I didn't stop it." He frowned. They waited a few minutes, though it quickly became clear they weren't going to be moving anytime soon. Or at all, at this rate.
"Should I check outside, see if I can find what caused us to stop?" she asked.
Obi-Wan shook his head. "No, if the elevator moves while you're in your current condition and outside…Artoo, I need you to get the elevator moving again." He attempted to reach Artoo, although the droid failed to respond. "Artoo."
Padmé shook her head. "Artoo please, we're stuck in the elevator and need to get moving." There was still no response, and after another minute, it was seeming more and more likely that they wouldn't get one and Padmé's initial investigation suggestion would be necessary. Just as she was about to suggest again to go around outside, the elevator suddenly dropped down and began plummeting beneath them. "Artoo up! We need to go up!" She was practically pleading with her Astromech, Obi-Wan shouting things of the same sentiment before finally, the elevator stopped its free fall and began moving up, albeit at a slightly accelerated pace.
"Still going to blame Anakin's programming of him?" Padmé smiled.
Obi-Wan sighed. "If you and that Senator aren't the death of me, your droid will be." He pressed the button on the door, opening it as soon as the elevator stopped once more. "Shall we?" He indicated for them to go, and Padmé left, shortly followed by Obi-Wan into the control deck of the ship. Unlike what they were used to on Republic ships, the room was empty with the exception of Chancellor Palpatine, bound to the chair in front of them.
Despite knowing it was a trap, both Obi-Wan and Padmé ran to the chair immediately. Obi-Wan bowed in respect while Padmé knelt down to try to work at the bindings holding him. "Are you alright, Chancellor?"
"Count Dooku." There was no need for them to ask what he meant. Padmé and Obi-Wan turned around to the entry, where Dooku stood, a droid on either side. Without a word, the leader of the Separatists jumped from his position, leaving the droids behind him.
Neither Padmé nor Obi-Wan spoke, knowing each other well enough to have already run through the strategy they would need, and simply waiting for an opportunity to strike. "Get help. You're no match for him, he's a Sith Lord." Palpatine's comment was unhelpful, simply confirming what the Jedi had suspected since the battle on Geonosis.
"Not to worry, Chancellor, Sith Lords are our specialty." Obi-Wan smiled at her, and Padmé turned to face Dooku, finally opening up the exchange.
"Count Dooku." Padmé smiled, her metallic hand clenching around her lightsaber. "It's been a while."
"General Naberrie, General Kenobi, a pleasure to see you both again." She felt Obi-Wan's Force presence brush up against her mind, attempting to give her reassurance through the bond between them. "Won't you come sit, we could have a little chat about all this."
"We aren't here to talk." Obi-Wan stood next to her. "We came to rescue the Chancellor."
"And rescue him you shall, can we not negotiate his freedom, it is your name, after all? The Great Negotiator." In any other circumstance, had the need been less dire, Padmé might have agreed to that, but she remembered what a negotiation with Dooku meant, the last time he'd tried to debate with anybody, she had almost paid the price.
"Padmé, General Kenobi, he's not to be trusted." Palpatine called out to him, echoing her very own thoughts.
Obi-Wan smiled. "Not to worry Chancellor. We already know." He pulled out his lightsaber, calling out the blade and indicating for Padmé to follow suit. "We've both been through this enough times to know better than to trust him. This ends now."
No more words were exchanged, as Dooku lit his lightsaber as well, the red blade casting its light everywhere around them, and then the battle began, Obi-Wan running in to immediately strike with Padmé close on his heels. Lightsaber met lightsaber as the trio clashed, Dooku working overtime to protect against the surprisingly aggressive strikes from the two Soresu users, who took advantage of their defensive style to block on the rare times Dooku launched a strike as he was forced to parry and evade, staying on the defensive against their attacks. He blocked another strike from Obi-Wan before ducking out from under the blade, escaping their assault.
"I've been looking forward to this." A surprising grin appeared on Dooku's face. "Though I admit, when I finally engaged the two of you together once again, I did not expect for one of you to be with child. Against the Jedi code to form bonds like that, isn't it?"
Padmé's eyes widened ever so slightly, but otherwise didn't react. She was definitely struggling to hide her future child as of late, but she'd hoped Dooku at least wouldn't notice. "My affairs aren't your concern Dooku. Focus on the battle."
"Very well." He pushed Obi-Wan away from the two of them before lunging once more at Padmé. Distantly, she was aware of the fact that Obi-Wan was taking care of the two droids that Dooku had brought in with him, but at the moment her primary focus had to be on the battle with Dooku as she continually found herself blocking each of his strikes and unable to find any openings.
Her constant blocking didn't last, as Obi-Wan returned to the battle, coming down with his lightsaber in an attempt to slice through Dooku, but found himself blocked as Obi-Wan was caught by Dooku in midair and thrown to the side to be trapped underneath a platform, unconscious. Unable to handle the idea of her Master being hurt for her sake, Padmé took advantage of the situation and charged, throwing herself into every strike as she began to dodge each of his strikes. Though her pregnancy made it difficult to move around as Ataru demanded, she began falling back into its patterns of rapid movements, looking for any opening she could find to catch Dooku off guard.
"Upset I hurt your Master, Naberrie? Or perhaps you're upset that I'm threatening to end the little fantasy you built with Skywalker as you dodge all the rules?" Dooku asked, and Padmé swallowed her anger, unable to release it into the Force mid battle. "I can feel your anger...your hatred. Why don't you use it?"
She knew he was taunting her, trying to provoke a reaction to make her sloppy, or perhaps testing her resolve to see if she would make a good Sith apprentice. Regardless of the reasoning behind it, Padmé felt her anger spike and all she saw was red as she continued going through the motions, her moves continuing to get more aggressive as Dooku was forced into the defensive, blocking each one of her blows as he struggled to keep up before she made one final strike, cutting the lightsaber blade right through his wrists. She caught his lightsaber, igniting it and holding it and hers crossed against his neck, preventing Dooku from moving as he fell to his knees.
Padmé felt herself panting, the battle hard fought and the fact that she was pregnant making it even more difficult, but well earned. Dooku was finally defeated, she had him captured. The end of the war could come tonight if they took out General Grievous as well. "It's over Count Dooku."
"So it is." Dooku looked at her, waiting to observe her reaction, as though waiting for her to let him go.
"Very good Padmé." She smiled at the Chancellor, at his compliment of her fighting skills. "You know what needs to be done?"
She blinked, attempting to process his words. "Come again?"
"Padmé, my dear, do you not agree that Count Dooku has been a scourge on the galaxy for far too long. He's dangerous, and if you let him free now then he'll likely escape. There is only one fate left for him, death." Though it hardly showed, Padmé felt a spike of fear from Dooku's presence, and his eyes widened as he turned to face Palpatine. Had he not expected this?
She shook her head, however. "Chancellor, with all due respect, it would be better for Dooku to face trial for his actions. He may be able to give us intel on the Separatists. If we hold him in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, he'll be impossible for them to get. We could take away their leader and win the war. He's disarmed as well."
Palpatine shook his head. "I understand why you think that, but believe me, I've known him. He'll find friends in the temple-" Could Palpatine be implying that some of the Jedi...would side with a Sith? "And then he'll find a way to resume this war, he's dangerous."
She glanced over to Obi-Wan, trying to use him to ignore her own conflict at Palpatine's words. "It's not right, it's not what the Jedi do."
"Sometimes, we must make sacrifices for the greater good." Palpatine gave her a kindly smile, though it left her feeling cold. "Do you not trust me?"
Padmé closed her eyes. She had to trust in her training, but…
Dooku was dangerous, and whether he found allies within the temple or not didn't matter. He needed to be stopped before he could cause harm to anybody else.
She closed her eyes and disengaged her own blue Saber before lifting Dooku's red and stabbing it right into his chest. He fell forward, unmoving, unblinking, and Padmé turned off the saber before tossing it to the side. She couldn't help herself from staring at the body, as though she couldn't believe what she had done. "You've done well, Padmé. He was too dangerous to be left alive."
Palpatine was right. He was simply too dangerous to live.
The thought didn't make her feel better.
She felt an arm wrap around her shoulders, jolting Padmé from her thoughts. "It's alright to feel regrets at your actions my dear, but you understand the importance of them, don't you?" She turned to face Palpatine and nodded.
"Of course, but…"
"Then there is no need to feel remorse. I doubt this is the first time you've taken a life to save countless others, and it likely won't be the last." Palpatine released her and patted her on the shoulders. "Come now Padmé, let's get out of here before security droids arrive."
"What about Obi-Wan?" She'd already run over to her Master, wanting to prevent at least one seemingly unnecessary death.
Palpatine shook his head. "We don't have time. If we stay to rescue him, then we will all perish."
"If it causes my death, then so be it. I'm not leaving without Obi-Wan." He'd been her closest friend for so long, her one source of stability after she found out she was pregnant and could no longer reach Anakin. Losing him wasn't something she was willing to face.
"Very well, then we should hurry."
With Palpatine's permission, Padmé picked up Obi-Wan (not an easy task) and led the way to the elevator, where she started hitting the button to no response. "Artoo, the elevator's not coming. We could use some help." There was a beeping on the other end, telling her that the message was received. "Thank you Artoo."
"Your Droid?" Palpatine asked.
"Anakin's, on loan from Tatooine, although he was originally from Naboo." She still remembered how she and Anakin had first met the droid and smiled. "He's very reliable, I've used him since the start of the Clone Wars."
"I should hope so, otherwise we may not get out of this." Within a moment, the elevator arrived, allowing Padmé, Obi-Wan (who was set gently on the floor), and Palpatine in as it started to descend. Like with before, it wasn't long before the elevator lurched, stopping in its tracks. Unlike before, alongside the stopping elevator was a rapid rotation of the room, as it was clear that the ship had turned on its side.
Padmé thanked the Force every day that she had it. She doubted rotations were good for the baby.
A soft thump came from the side, and Padmé turned to see Obi-Wan's head hit the ground as he started to stir. "Padmé?"
"Good morning Master, sleep well?" She smiled.
Obi-Wan chuckled. "Did I miss a lot? I seem to recall fighting Dooku last." Padmé didn't bother to explain, simply smiling.
"Dooku won't be a problem. Unfortunately getting out of this elevator might."
Obi-Wan put his fingers to his chin in thought. "Yes, well, the elevator being on its side might certainly pose an issue. Perhaps we can–" As though attempting to prove any attempt at a plan pointless, the ship started to right itself, and a loud snap came from above. Within moments the elevator started rapidly coming down.
"I don't suppose your miracle droid can get you out of this one?" Palpatine asked, but she knew better than to even suggest it.
Obi-Wan reached for his lightsaber from Padmé's hand as she offered it and ignited it. "Are we on the same page?"
"I believe we are." And both ignited their lightsaber, working quickly to cut an opening in the door to the elevator. Padmé grabbed Palpatine and the three of them made a jump out of the nearest opening in the elevator shaft, leaving the elevator to plummet behind without them as they dusted themselves off in the hallway.
"Close one." Obi-Wan grinned, and Padmé couldn't help herself from smiling back. "Come on, we'll have to get moving."
Padmé nodded and relayed their location to Artoo before turning to Obi-Wan. "Let's see if we can find any ships left in the hanger that aren't junk before this ship goes down with us on it."
Obi-Wan chuckled. "Are you sure you don't want a junky ship? I believe you and Anakin have a tendency for collecting them and fixing them up."
"Now that we're not facing Dooku, I'd really like to live tonight to continue fixing those ships with him." They set off down the hall, lightsabers still in hand, but it wasn't long before they were blocked by a thin white shield, preventing further progress.
"Ray Shield?"
Obi-Wan sighed. "How did we fall for this one? We're smarter than this?" They'd been generals for three years, this was the most obvious trap either of them could have fallen for, and yet here they were, stuck behind a ray shield. "Any plans, Padmé?"
"Artoo can help us, he can deactivate the shield and then we can get back to getting to the hanger and escap–" As if to prove her wrong, because of course more things had to go wrong over the course of their rescue, the little blue droid came running down the hall screaming as he fled from the army of Separatists droids behind him. He attempted to fight them off valiantly, but was quickly knocked off his wheels and onto his back where he could no longer move. "Artoo!"
Obi-Wan shook his head. "Any other ideas?" As she watched the battle droids start to surround them, Padmé just shook her head.
They had, unfortunately, been caught.
Clearly deciding it was more worthwhile not to keep their prizes trapped in a single hallway, the droids led Padmé, Obi-Wan, Palpatine, and Artoo into one of the rooms. Unlike the room where Palpatine had been held, the room was filled with active computers and droids, running around and keeping it fully operational. It was the true control center, and sitting at the center was a cyborg that Padmé had only seen in passing while near unconscious after getting captured by Dooku mid-war. Grievous looked over the three of them as though he were analyzing them as each one stood in a line. Padmé did her best to meet his eye.
"Ah, the famed Negotiator, General Kenobi. I'm pleased to see you on my ship tonight." He walked past Obi-Wan and ignored the Chancellor, instead putting his attention on her. "And the famed Padmé Naberrie–" He coughed, "–it's a pleasure to finally meet a general of your reputation. I'm glad to see you recovered from Dooku's treatment."
"General Grievous, the pleasure is all mine. I'm glad to see you're once again leading the Droid Army rather than Anakin's prisoner." She smiled.
"Jedi Scum." He walked away, coughing, while Obi-Wan rolled his eyes at the comment.
"Did you have to provoke him, Padmé?"
"If it stopped him from observing us like we were some kind of specimen, yes." Her comment may have been rude, but so had his first.
Grievous meanwhile, took hers and Obi-Wan's lightsabers to put them in his robe. "Your lightsabers will make a fine addition to my collection."
"Not this time, Grievous." Obi-Wan summoned his lightsaber with the Force, and seeing as this was a good time to act, Padmé turned to Artoo. The droid understood her request with no words necessary, and created a spark, allowing for Padmé to grab her lightsaber back as well and move in tandem with Obi-Wan, beginning to slice through the remaining droids in the room. They moved back to back, each one taking one of the two advanced droids and began blocking the electrically charged javelins, blocking each hit as it came.
As Obi-Wan took the head off of his, Padmé began chasing hers down, following it out into the hallway where she sliced it in half before taking out two weaker droids that had been trying to lead Palpatine out of the room. Obi-Wan, meanwhile, appeared to have finished with the weaker droid within and had cornered Grievous. Padmé jumped in afterwards, hoping to keep the Cyborg trapped. Rather than accept his defeat, he simply laughed. "You lose, General Kenobi." And without further thought, Grievous stabbed the window of the ship, creating a vacuum and flying out while both Padmé, Obi-Wan, and Palpatine all grabbed onto the console, allowing the three of them to stay in until the hole was sealed.
With Grievous gone, there was no time left to continue to plan. They needed out of the ship before things got worse. Immediately, she and Obi-Wan began taking out the droids, hoping to clear a path to get towards one of the escape pods. Before they could plan further, the console to Padmé's right started beeping.
"The escape pods were launched." Not good.
"Grievous." There was no time to discuss the situation they were in further as both Padmé and Obi-Wan ran to the controls. "Padmé, can you fly this."
She shook her head. "No, but Anakin could."
"Well we don't have Anakin, we have you. Surely he must have taught you something of how to do it if he can." It was clear Obi-Wan had wanted to say more, and had only stopped himself because of the presence of the Chancellor.
"...I'll see what I can do." She had flown dozens of ships before, and this wasn't even flying, this was just making sure they didn't die in the crash. "It's going to be rough."
"I'll buckle up." Obi-Wan joked, and she appreciated the attempt to make a joke out of the situation at least, a little levity went a long way and it did manage to get a small laugh, if nothing else.
She turned back to the control panel. "We need to slow this thing down, that means opening as many flaps as possible. Artoo, I need your help too." The droid beeped back in response and attached himself to the console, working on the systems from the inside using Anakin's teaching while she and Obi-Wan flipped as many slips as they could to open the flaps. The ship jolted, and Padmé looked at the readings. "The back half is gone."
"We can't worry about that now, focus on landing the half we do have." Obi-Wan was right, unfortunately, she doubted even Anakin had landed a ship missing half of its components.
If she survived this with both her and the baby in tact, she would gladly hold this over her husband's head when they arrived back in Coruscant. Maybe. She pulled on the steering wheel, attempting to pull up to slow it down. "We don't have enough drag, we're moving too fast."
"We'll just have to make do. Artoo, see if you can navigate the ship and keep it level." Obi-Wan may not have been an expert, but she agreed with his assessment on the situation. And if Artoo handled flying it around, then she and Obi-Wan could focus on their descent as they continued through the atmosphere. To either side of them, clones emerged, spraying the ship to put out the flames and attempting to slow down their fall. "I see the landing strip."
"Guide us there Artoo." The ship continued its trajectory, moving too fast for a full safe landing, Padmé held on tight to the wheel that she had, attempting to help Artoo with the landing.
Moments later, the ship jolted as it hit the ground, skidding down the landing strip until it stopped with one final jolt.
For a moment, the cockpit was silent. Then she and Obi-Wan burst out laughing as they realized during this mission they'd not only survived every possible thing that could go wrong, but they had succeeded. The Chancellor was rescued, Dooku was dead.
They were alive and unhurt, and the war would be over soon. Really, with her child soon to come into the world, there wasn't anything more that she could hope for.