Chapter 1

Mace Windu soared from the window in the Chancellor's office, rapidly plummeting thousands of feet to the ground. Blue lighting coursed through his entire body. The pain was intense, agonizing, but he knew he must not give up.

The ground continued to grow larger in front of him. Air traffic, with a huge assortment of vehicles going in every direction, constantly flew by him. But not one noticed the tiny speck of the Jedi Master, diminutive against the backdrop of the Coruscant night. Even now the lightning coursing through his body was dying down, though that did little to help his current situation.

Mace knew that if he miscalculated, even a little bit, he would end up a smudge on someone's windshield. He reached out with his left hand, his one good hand, and touched into the Force. Mace reached, saw, all the way down to the permacrete floor on the bottom, and pushed away from it. His descent to the bottom began to slow, but he knew it would not be enough. The lights continued to get brighter as the ground loomed closer.

Retracting his immersion in the Force, Mace looked around for something he could use. As he gazed around the air lanes Mace noticed a hovercar coming toward his position from below, intercepting his path of descent. He quickly angled his body, to make his fall quicken, and shot toward the hovercar. As he got closer he angled his body away from the car and used the Force to aid him in his landing. He landed on the roof with a thump, shaking the car. One of the car's occupants stuck, a Bothan, stuck its head out the window and looked angrily at Mace. But Mace gave the Bothan a harsh stare of his own and the alien timidly withdrew back into the car.

Mace realized that though he was not falling anymore he was still far from safe. Now, as he traveled on the speeding hovercar, he had to get down to the ground. He saw another aircar coming towards him from below. He turned towards and waited for the right moment, and then he jumped to it as it passed. Then from that one he continued his jumping from vehicle to vehicle as he made his descent to the Coruscant ground level. He was still far away from the ground, far enough away that if he hit the ground he would die. But as he stood on his most recently borrowed ride, he noticed a large pole quickly approaching, one that reached all the way to the ground.

The car passed by it and Mace jumped, wrapping his left arm around the pole and then he let gravity do the rest. He slid down the pole effortlessly but realized that at the rate he was going he would smash into the ground. He tried to use the Force to slow his descent, as he did before, but could not because he had only one arm to use. The ground began to come closer. Mace could now see the pedestrians, humans and aliens of all sorts, going about their business. Mace was now immersed in a galley of flashing signs as lights as the ground became larger.

Finally, only several yards from the ground, Mace leaped into the air and immediately thrust his hand out and used the Force to slow his descent. It worked but Mace had to roll as he touched the ground. He stood up and shook the dust off his robes. A large crowd was staring at him, amazed at what he had just done. Some started to go near him, asking questions, but Mace was neither in the mood or had the capability of answering any questions.

He ran through the crowd and escaped into an alley, into the shadows of the night.