Padmé followed the blue robed guard that walked ahead of her and was keenly aware of the one that also walked behind her. Her mind however was not on the guards, or their destination, but on the blaster rifle that the guard following her held against her spine. If she could just get her hands on that blaster.
They came to the end of a dark corrider and the front guard palmed a doorway. It hissed open to reveal a chamber that could only be used for one of two purposes -- torture or termination. Only then did she allow the fear to begin to build within her. She tamped it down immediately, however. Mace, Obi-Wan and her son were depending upon her. She could not fail them. If she could just get her hands on that blaster!
She twisted away from the guard, focusing on that desire, and before she knew it, the rifle had escaped from the guard's grip and was within her grasp. Instinct drove her to dive to the right and she fired, hitting and disabling both guards with deadly aim.
The lifeless bodies slumped to the floor and Padmé gasped in a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. She looked down to the rifle she held in her hands. "Sith!" She hissed aloud. How in the galaxy did I do that?
/Padme! Are you all right?./
Having felt her fear, Obi-Wan risked sending a message along their bond, sighing in relief as she hastily returned a reply.
/Yes, but you have some explaining to do. Mace and I are on our way./
Obi-Wan's internal clock and paternal bond with his son informed him that his visitation would be soon. Perfect timing, he thought. Padmé was on board with Master Windu. Now, if they would only bring in his son.
He smiled as the barred door banged open. "Perfect timing." He muttered to the nurse, who shot him a questionable look and then turned to look at the guard behind her, surprised to see him now lying face down upon the durasteel flooring. The glow of a purple lightsaber soon reflected in the nurse's eyes.
"Please step inside." Mace motioned the woman into the cell and watched as Obi-Wan took the bundled infant from her hands and stepped into the hall.
Mace sealed the door shut with a jab of the 'saber and reached down to his belt. Unclipping the extra weapon that hung there, he turned to Obi-Wan and handed it to him. "Here. I thought you might be needing this."
"Thanks." Obi-Wan grinned and accepted the lightsaber in one hand, holding his infant son in the other.
"Take the child back to the ship. I'm going to find the senator."
"What about Sidious?" Obi-Wan assumed that the Jedi Master's presence meant that he had been assigned by the council to destroy the sith, as was the duty of all the Jedi, so he was stunned to hear the older man's reply.
"My mission is to rescue you and the child alone. I have come without the council's permission. We must get you back to safety. Hurry. I don't think we have much time." Mace could feel the anger of Sidious darkening the Living Force that surrounded him.
Mace watched Obi-Wan escape down a hallway leading back toward the hangar and then stealthily crept down the opposite direction. The corridors crossed paths with others and he often used the Force to distract the attention of several guards while he snuck away from their sight. Lightsaber in hand, but not ignited, his focus was entirely on the Force. He barely had time to react before he was literally run into by a young woman armed with a blaster rifle at least half her size.
"Where's Obi-Wan and the baby?" Padmé stuttered, somewhat out of breath.
"They're on their way back to the ship. Come. We've got to get out of here."
Padmé followed the dark brown cloak moving in front of her until their motions were suddenly stopped by the sound of marching feet. Thousands of them. Mace held his arm out to gently hold Padmé back and edged along the wall to a viewport that overlooked an expansive training area on the floor below. He heard a gasp as Padmé moved up alongside him.
"Battle droids." She whispered. "Thousands of them."
"Darth Sidious is forming an army. We must get back to Coruscant and inform the Council and the Senate."
They stared at the massive army beneath them until steps coming up from behind them forced them into action.
"Halt! You're under arrest." The words were mechanical and came from one of the three droids pointing blasters at them.
Padmé did not hesitate in aiming and firing. Somehow, she knew that Mace would expect her to, and she did not disappoint him. Between her shots and his deflections of the blaster bolts, the droids were soon in a heap upon the floor. They began moving down the hallway in a relatively slow jog, until red lights began flashing and the ship's alarms began blaring.
They took off at a fast-paced run, Mace being careful to keep Padmé ahead of him. Using the Force as his guide, they were soon back at the hangar within view of the Nubian ship.
"Go!" He yelled to Padmé who glanced back at him. He nodded his head to affirm his words, and she ran toward the ship, whose engines were beginning to cycle.
She was on board quickly, stopping at the top of the ramp to fire upon the numerous droids and blue robed guards that hadpursued them to the hangar. Mace was deflecting the blows with his lightsaber but was quickly becoming outnumbered. Padmé was doing her best to help him.
"Tell Kenobi to take off!" Mace yelled over his shoulder as he backed toward the ship.
"We're not leaving without you!" Padmé yelled back.
"You won't be!"
Padmé reluctantly retreated from the ramp. "Obi-Wan! Mace wants you to start taking off!"
Obi-Wan knew exactly what Mace wanted him to do. It was a routine emergency procedure when being outnumbered while attempting to board a vessel. He and his own master had successfully employed the routine while escaping that Sith on Tatooine.
He throttled the engines and hovered the ship, keeping the boarding platform lowered, expecting Mace to Force leap aboard, just as Qui-Gon had done.
Padmé stood at the top of the loading platform, taking shots at the numerous guards firing upon Mace from below, but there were so many. She felt a flutter ripple across her skin, not realizing its source and watched as Mace leapt from the deck and up toward their rising ship. The concentration on his face however, soon turned to panic and Padmé screamed in horror as Mace's body was suddenly engulfed in a web of blue Force lightning.
Darth Sidious had just arrived in the hangar and was holding his hands out, aiming the deadly bolts at the now helpless Jedi suspended in the air just inches away from the loading platform.
Padmé screamed once more as she watched Mace Windu's body spasm and then fall, slamming heavily against the durasteel deck below, numerous blaster bolts now striking him repeatedly. Her vision of the horrific scene was soon interrupted as the platform closed and the ship took off.
"Padmé! Take out the tractor beams." Obi-Wan commanded from the cockpit.
She numbly rushed to the weapons station and aimed at the outer hull of the ship as they blasted out of the docking station. She fired twice, destroying any chance for them to be locked into the ship's tractor beams.
Once reaching a safe distance away from the enemy vessel, Obi-Wan set the coordinates and engaged the hyperdrive. The vessel lurched forth and he released his iron grip from the controls.
He glanced back to the baby secured on a bench behind him. He was sound asleep.
He then looked to Padmé who sat in the copilot's chair. She was staring ahead at the blur of passing stars, obviously in shock. As he reached for her hand, she hesitated, but soon gripped it tightly and then began weeping quietly.