Padme groaned as she came round. Her head was throbbing like mad, and she was dazed and confused. Then as her vision came back into focus she slowly realised what had happened.
Sitting up straight, she howled in pain and held her head as her vision went blurry again.
"Miss Padme, thank goodness you are alive. Artoo and I were getting worried!" C-3PO said as he waddled over to her. "Master Anakin and Master Obi-Wan have gone off into the main building..."
"Doing what? " Padme asked, blinking several times at the bright flashes of light from the erupting lava.
"Fighting. I fear it is to a be a fight to the death."
"No!" Padme cried out, fear flooding her and forcing her to scramble to her feet. She ran, although her legs were still rather shaky, into the main building, following the trail of debris left from the two men. She ran out onto a balcony area and saw the two of them balancing precariously on a thin pipe. One false move and either one of them could fall into the sea of lava below.
I have to do something. But what?
Looking around, she saw a loose wire hanging above her head. It was long enough to carry her out to the pipe aswell, so without hesitation, she grabbed it and swung out, across the lava. At first she thought she would fall, but then she concentrated on trusting the force to get her there safely, which it did. Once there, she tied the wire round her waist and slowly and very carefully began to walk towards the two sparring Jedi.
"Anakin look!" Obi-Wan pointed out, but Anakin thought it was a trick and didn't look. It was only when Padme grabbed his shoulder that he realised Obi-Wan had been right.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, all his anger towards her now gone.
"I can't let you two kill each other. I won't allow it!" she said, then as if to prove her point she undid the wire and handed it to Obi-Wan.
"If you continue to fight, then you will both lose."
"What are you talking about Padme?" Obi-Wan asked, looking from her to the wire, then back again.
"If you fight, I'll jump, and then you'll both have lost me!"
"Padme don't be so stupid!" Anakin cried, grabbing her arm as though he thought she really would jump.
Just then a huge wave of lava washed over the pipe and caused the metal to melt. The pipe began to give way, so Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme all ran, along the pipe towards a large sail type thing at the end that could provide shelter from the lava bombs that were being thrown up from the molten liquid.
Anakin pulled Padme into one side with him whilst Obi-Wan ducked into the other side. As the pipe broke completely and they plummeted down to the boiling river below, Anakin pushed Padme up onto another vertical pipe which she clung to for dear life. Then he joined her, with Obi-Wan right behind.
All thoughts of fighting were quickly lost as the three tried to reach the safety of the bank of ash. Obi-Wan saw that their floating pillar was slowly heading for a huge lava fall, so he grabbed three wires, chucking two to Anakin and Padme and holding one himself. Seeing what he was going to do, Anakin and Padme did the same and the three of them swung away from the platform. Anakin and Obi-Wan managed to jump from the wire onto the nearby ash bank, but Padme wasn't so lucky. She was carried over the edge of the fall with the huge lumps of metal.
"PADME!" Anakin screamed, dropping to his knees and bursting into uncontrollable tears. Obi-Wan could feel tears running down his cheeks aswell as he watched the sparks fly from the melting metal. There was no way Padme could have survived.
"Why couldn't we save her?" Anakin groaned and Obi-Wan crouched next to him, wrapping an arm round him comfortingly.
"We did our best, but there was nothing we could do."
"I've lost everything! How can I go on without her?" Anakin wailed, accepting Obi-Wan's warm hug like they were old friends again.
"Anakin, what would Padme do if she were in your position?"
"She would do the right thing...she would come back from the darkness...which is what I want to do now!"
"You've made the right choice Anakin." Obi-Wan said, but there was sadness in his voice, as though he thought Anakin's choice was too late.
"Indeed!" said a ghastly voice behind and the two looked up to see the Emperor standing above them, flanked by two clone guards.
"Now I don' t have to worry about feeling guilty over your death! Padme got what was coming to her, and now so shall you!" he laughed evily.
"I hate you!" Anakin screamed at him, his anger boiling over. He ignited his sabed again and charged at the Emperor only to be blasted back down to the edge of the lava pit where his robes caught fire.
Anakin's screams filled the air as Obi-Wan looked on helplessly. He could hear the Emperor's sickening laugh pounding in his ears as Anakin slowly fried. His skin was burned away, along with some of his muscles. There was no way Anakin would be able to survive this, Obi-Wan knew that.
At last, the flames died down, having run out of fuel, and Anakin's charred body dropped to the floor.
"You're still alive!" The Emperor sneered in disbelief as Anakin groaned and tried to pull himself back up the beach. His hole body hurt with the effort, but all he wanted to do was avenge Padme's death.
Another bolt of blue lightning sent Anakin back again so that his feet fell into the lava. He screamed out in pain as his feet slowly melted and boiled. Anakin was losing his grip and he slowly slid further and further towards the river of fire. Obi-Wan ran forwards and grabbed Anakin's burnt hands, but the remains of his skin peeled off in Obi-Wan's hands and he lost his grip several times. Only Anakin's metalic arm provided Obi-Wan with a firm grim, but it was red hot and he couldn't hold on.
More blue lightning sent Obi-Wan flying down in what would inevitably turn out to be the same fate. His feet were so close to the hot lava that he could feel the intense heat through the soles of his boots. Scrabbling as hard as he could he could feel the soles of his boots melting as he slid ever closer to his doom. Looking over at Anakin, he could see that Anakin was now up to his knees in lava.
And then the unthinkable happened. The Emperor was walking towards them, wanting front row seats to their painful deaths when he tripped, over nothing it seemed, and plunged down towards the lava below, grasping one of his clones who slid with him. The clone pulled out a grappling hook which threw up to the other who tightly wrapped it round a large rock, leaving the Emperor and the clone dangling over the lava aswell.
Obi-Wan cried out in pain as his foot slipped and fell into the lava, dragging him to the same fate as Anakin. The three of them were doomed to become the lava's victims, just like poor Padme had only minutes earlier.