Leia whipped out her blades from two holsters she had strapped to her legs. Padme stepped back, looking as Leia lifted up her dress and took out her weapons. Anakin ignited a red saber and swatted Luke's blade away.
"I can teach you the ways of the force," Anakin said, holding his blade in front of him in a defensive stance.
"Not from you," Leia said. She tossed her knives to Luke as she summoned the lightsaber with an outstretched hand from Luke's grip. Suddenly, a vision flashed in the front of her mind. She saw her mother being dragged away by troopers and Luke lying bruised on the floor, looking half-dead.
She gasped, shaking her head out of the vision and lifted her blade just in time to block Anakin's lunge. Leia knew she stood a better chance than Luke at this kind of combat. Luke took out his blaster and fired it. Anakin spun his saber and deflected the bolts, one of them hitting Luke in the leg. He cried out and stumbled to the floor as Padme rushed over to him.
Leia yelled and met Anakin's next blow. They moved down the hallway, red meeting blue as the sounds of lightsabers clashing echoed around the palace. Some servants peeked out from behind the doors but quickly stepped back as they saw what was happening. Leia's blade locked with her father's as they stared each other in the eye.
"Foolish," Anakin spat.
Leia was thrown back across the marble, hitting her head hard on the floor. She saw the red blade grow smaller and smaller until it suddenly came down fast towards her face, Anakin having leapt into the air. She raised her blade, her vision spinning. She suddenly saw a flash of metal and a knife block the saber. Luke was grunting from the effort. Leia rolled out from beneath the two blades and Luke swung Leia's staff. Anakin stopped him and held his hand up in the air. Luke gasped and dropped his weapon, clutching his throat as he rose into the air.
Padme came running towards them, tears flowing down her face. Leia, too distorted to move, watched from behind the pillar she was leaning against as Luke was smashed into the wall and crumpled to the ground, his face swollen and blood flowing from a cut on his arm and leg.
Anakin's eyes were blazing yellow as he lifted Padme into the air. She gasped and choked as Anakin walked towards her.
"You betrayed me," he snarled, before dropping her to the ground.
"Anakin, why didn't you come," Padme sobbed. Anakin froze and his eyes turned back to their brown again.
"I mourned for you, I waited for you," Padme cried.
His Padme. He had turned to the dark side to save her, but he hadn't even talked to her. Anakin felt a fear he had controlled under Darth Sidious' training suddenly flow through his mind. He was afraid that he would lose Padme. In the 17 years he had been away, Anakin had been subtly changing orders. He had stopped troopers from coming to Naboo to take his children away. He had made sure his marriage was a secret. But now Padme was fading away from him, her faith in him ebbing.
The troop carrier which had arrived before landed again and Anakin snapped back to his blazing eyes. The stormtroopers rushed in and dragged Padme and Luke to the ship. Leia stopped herself from following them and crawled into the empty room behind her, grabbing the lightsaber and her staff as she closed the door.
Anakin looked around the large hallway.
"Kill everyone you see. Let this be an example to those who dare defy the Empire. And bring back that girl Leia. I want her alive."
The troops saluted and ran to each door, dragging out servants and shooting them before they even had the chance to scream. Leia's head had cleared a little and she could stand up on her own. She opened the window overlooking the hangars and jumped just as some soldiers barged into the room.
Blaster bolts rained around her as she tucked herself and rolled on the ground beneath her. Padme hid behind a ship as the blaster bolts stopped.
"Commander wants her alive," a stormtrooper said.
This must be where the extra ships were kept, Leia thought as she looked around the hangar. All the ships were old with some rusting. They looked like they were from the Clone Wars. A droid wheeled into the hangar from a small entrance, beeping a little. It caught sight of Leia and rolled towards her, beeping happily.
"R2, what are you doing here," Leia whispered as she heard troopers march outside.
R2 beeped and squeaked as Leia sheathed her knives.
"I know this is dangerous. Do you know where the clothes are in here?"
R2 beeped and rolled to a closet in the corner. There were some dusty pilot uniforms and a few helmets. Leia grabbed a helmet and selected a tight-fitting top and pants, pulling a jacket over it. She quickly tied back her long hair into a bun on the back of her head and secured it with a metal rod she had found. She quickly discovered, however, that it was actually a utility pen with knife, screwdriver and anything else a pilot needed. Her knife holsters were strapped securely to her legs and she clipped the lightsaber to a belt loop.
Leia ran to an X-Wing that didn't look too battered and hooked up a heavy fuel nozzle to it. R2 rotated the controls and the ship's engines fired up.
"You are not coming with me R2!" Leia called back as she jumped into the cockpit. She had taken flying lessons multiple times. An X-wing was just a lot simpler than the Naboo ships. As she studied the controls, a million thoughts ran through her head with one standing out.
I'm a fugitive now.
Leia shook her head to clear her thoughts. R2 gave a condescending beep and hoisted himself up into the droid compartment. Leia rolled her eyes and flicked the engine controls just as troopers ran into the room, firing at the X-Wing as it rose into the sky and shot away from Naboo.
