Disclaimer: In no way at all do I own any of the original character, locations, ships, or anything else mentioned in Star Wars. They are all owned by George Lucas. I only own my OC. Any similarities between this story and another are purely accidental.

A/N: I had my laptop playing ROTS and was pausing it every five seconds just to write this chapter!

jedimasterobi-wankenobi: Hey! I'll be online today from 4 pm to 5 pm, kay!

randomness: Really? Wow! So what's your class?

Hoonah: Thank you!

Masked Masquerader: Well, I enjoyed writing it!

Valinor's Twilight: Yay! Someone wishes she could write like me!

---

War! The Republic is crumbling under the attacks by the

ruthless Sith Lord, Count Dooku. There are

heroes on both sides. Evil is everywhere.

In a stunning move, the fiendish droid leader, General

Grievous, has swept into the Republic capital

and kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine, leader of

the Galactic Senate.

As the Separatist Droid Army attempts to flee the besieged

capital with their valuable hostage,

three Jedi Knights lead a desperate mission

to rescue the captive Chancellor…

---

Lyra could not seem to let her mind center around any other fact. As far as she knew, Padmé did not indulge in liaisons with men, often commenting that they interfered with her duties as a Senator.

So how come she's pregnant now?

Her eyes fell on the yellow starfighter flying beside her, zoning on its pilot; Anakin. Lately, a strong shield was constantly around his mind, and he seemed strangely distracted.

For a moment, Lyra toyed with the thought of telling Anakin that Padmé was pregnant. She could gauge his reaction, to see whether or not he was the father.

Just as quickly as it came up, Lyra dismissed the idea. If she did that, Padmé would murder her. And that would be just cruel, both to Padmé and Anakin.

Anakin's voice over the commlink tore Lyra from her thoughts. "Lock on them, R2. Master, General Grievous' ship is directly ahead. The one crawling with vulture droids."

"I see it," said Obi-Wan. "Oh, this is going to be easy."

"Here they come," muttered Lyra, watching the droids unfold into bat-like mini-ships and launching themselves toward the three Jedi.

"Come on, Master," prompted Anakin.

"Not this time," said Lyra. "There's too much at stake."

"Lyra's right," agreed Obi-Wan. "Odd Ball, do you copy?"

The commander of the clone pilots that aided the two Jedi spoke. "Copy, Red Leader."

"Mark my position. Form your squad up behind me."

"We're on your tail, General Kenobi." The clones piloted their fighters directly behind the Jedi as the vulture droids approached them.

Anakin chuckled eagerly. "This is where the fun begins."

"Let them pass between us," ordered Obi-Wan.

The vulture droids passed by them. Anakin fired at a few, but left the rest to the other pilots.

"There are too many of them!" cried the clone commander, just before his ship was blown to bits.

"I'm on your wing," said another clone pilot. "Break left. Break left. They're all over me. Get them off my—" He was cut off as the vulture droids blasted his ship as well.

"I'm going to go help them out," said Anakin.

"No!" ordered Obi-Wan. "They are doing our job and we can do ours."

Lyra winced as the last of clone pilots' ships exploded. Her gaze then turned to rockets coming towards them, with streaks of blue light coming from them.

"Missiles. Pull up!" she ordered.

The three Jedi separated, and Lyra noticed with a groan that she had picked up two of the blasted things.

"Anakin, I've got two on my tail!"

"Head for me and pull up when I tell you to."

Lyra gulped and did as Anakin instructed, heading for his starfighter. The missiles followed.

"Pull up!"

Lyra did so, and as she did, Anakin picked up the two missiles that had been following her. He did several barrel roll spins, causing the missiles to be so confused they ended up crashing into each other.

"I'm hit!" Obi-Wan's frantic voice came over the commlink. "Anakin? Lyra?"

"I see them," said Anakin as five balls attached themselves to Obi-Wan's ship. The balls popped open to reveal spider-like droids, which began to scuttle over Obi-Wan's hull.

"Buzz Droids," groaned Lyra. The ball-shaped buggers did considerable damage to anything electrical, and just the sight of them usually grated her nerves.

The Buzz Droids crawled all over the ship tearing it apart. One of them came to R4; Obi-Wan's Astro-Droid. In no time at all, it had ripped R4's domed head off and sent it flying through space.

"Oh dear," said Obi-Wan, and Lyra could almost see him wincing.

"Move to the right so we can get a clear shot at them," ordered Anakin calmly.

"The mission," Obi-Wan reminded them. "Get to the Command Ship. Get the Chancellor! I'm running out of tricks here."

Anakin moved into position just off Obi-Wan's left side and angled his ship so his guns were pointed at the droids crawling over Obi-Wan's starfighter. Anakin fired, vaporizing the two buzz droids, along with the left wing of Obi-Wan's ship.

"IN THE NAME OF…" Obi-Wan trailed off.

"Hold your fire!" ordered Lyra. "You're not helping!"

"I can't see a thing!" complained Obi-Wan. "My cockpit's fogging! They're all over me!"

"Move to the right."

"Hold on, Anakin. You're going to get us all killed! Get out of here. There's nothing more you can do."

"We're not leaving without you, Obi-Wan," replied Lyra firmly.

Anakin moved closer to Obi-Wan's ship, attempting to physically knock off the Buzz Droids. He succeeded, but at the same time dented the ship. Four more approached, but Lyra shot three of them off. The fourth one climbed onto Anakin's wing, heading for R2.

"R2, hit the Buzz Droid's center eye," ordered Obi-Wan.

R2 extended an arm and aimed a stream of electricity at the swerving Buzz Droid, hitting it squarely in the eye and making it fall of the ship.

"Great, R2," praised Obi-Wan.

"The General's Command Ship is dead ahead," said Anakin as they approached the large transport.

"Well, have you noticed the shields are still up!" shouted Lyra, looking at the blue shields that covered the entrance.

"Sorry," said Anakin sheepishly, streaking forward and blasting the shield generator.

"Oh, I have a bad feeling about this," groaned Obi-Wan.

"You have bad feelings about everything!" shouted Lyra as the three Jedi headed for the blast doors, which were beginning to close.

---

The three Jedi managed to zoom into the hangar bay just before the blast doors closed.

Lyra shut off the engines of her ship as it skidded across the floor, opening the top hatch and simultaneously igniting her lightsaber. She jumped out of the starfighter, immediately meeting with several battle droids. As was Obi-Wan, and the two immediately set to destroying the droids.

Anakin was luckier, managing to climb out of his starfighter properly before being bombarded by blaster fire.

"R2, locate the Chancellor!" ordered Lyra.

The little droid obeyed, going over to a computer wall socket. As soon as the three Jedi finished cutting down the battle droids, they joined R2, who had projected a hologram of the ship.

"The Chancellor's signal is coming from right there," said Obi-Wan, pointing to a blinking red dot at the topmost part of the ship, "the observation platform at the top of that spire."

"I sense Count Dooku," muttered Anakin quietly.

"I sense a trap," said Obi-Wan.

"Next move?" Anakin grinned at the two older Jedi, who were grinning themselves.

"Spring the trap," said Lyra, smirking.

---

The three walked down a corridor, heading towards an elevator.

"Destroyers!" called Anakin.

Three destroyer droids wheeled towards them, putting their shields up. The three Jedi deflected their blaster fire until the elevator door opened and they stumbled in.

The door slid shut, and a blaster was pushed into their backs.

"Drop your weapons!"

They turned around to see several battle droids behind them, their blasters aimed.

"I said drop 'em."

Lyra just had time to roll her eyes before turning around, as the three cut down the droids.

"That was incredibly pathetic," she muttered, making Anakin give her a small smirk.

The elevator moved smoothly until it came to a screeching halt somewhere halfway up.

"Did either of you press the stop button?" Lyra asked.

"No. Did you?" asked Obi-Wan.

"No."

"Well," said Anakin, igniting her lightsaber, "there's more than one way out of here." He used his lightsaber to start cutting a hole in the roof of the elevator. Once the circle fell away, he jumped.

Lyra sighed. "Always on the move."

"We don't want to get out, we want to get moving," said Obi-Wan, bringing the commlink to his mouth. "R2, activate elevator number 31174."

Lyra examined the controls curiously when the elevator jolted and went downwards. The sharp shake had sent Lyra and Obi-Wan toppling to the ground, he on top of her.

"No R2!" said Obi-Wan. "We want to go up, not down."

"I can't breathe," croaked Lyra, struggling to fill her lungs with oxygen as Obi-Wan lay right on her stomach and lungs.

Obi-Wan quickly got off of her, helping her up. "Sorry, I—"

But before he could finish that sentence, the elevator jolted up again, again sending them to the ground.

"Now, that's better," said Obi-Wan, helping Lyra up again.

Suddenly, Anakin dropped in again from the hole he had created in the roof of the elevator. Hearing the noise, Obi-Wan turned around, igniting his lightsaber.

"Oh, it's just you."

"What was that all about?"

"Well, R2 was being—"

"—Uh huh, no loose-wire jokes."

"Did I say anything?"

"He's trying."

"I didn't say anything!"

"We're nearing the top floor," sighed Lyra. She found Anakin's and Obi-Wan's arguments funny most of the time, but not when they were about to face off with a Sith Lord in order to rescue the leader of the Galactic Republic.