Disclaimer: Star Wars belongs to George Lucas
A Shift in the Force: Chapter Ten: Battle For Theed
AN: The continuing love for this fic is one of the things that keeps me coming up with ideas of where to take the fic.
Fun fact: I'd originally planned to start this when Sabé was younger, which would have meant that there'd be less flashbacks like there were towards the beginning, but that idea fizzled out and I like how the fic is going.
Also, concerning the speech of the battle droids in this chapter…I've done my share of binging on Star Wars: Clone Wars, which is mostly where I adopted their way of speaking…they're not a very intelligent bunch, but they are certainly humorous to a degree.
Haha, here's another fic I've seriously neglected, my bad. But the Force Awakens is coming out soon so I was reinspired, so, enjoy!
"Why didn't you do that earlier?" demanded Yané, looking down at the dismembered droids.
"It's very violent," Sabé told her bluntly. "Jedi are meant to be peacekeepers first." Annoyance crossed her face at being considered anything other than that. Jedi were indeed warriors, trained and highly skilled warriors, but they tried not to resort to violence.
Yané rolled her eyes for good measure towards the older woman, but she couldn't fault her for her reluctance to kill. Nabooans, on principle, were a peaceful race, but this caused them to be taken advantage of by their enemies, which was the reason why they were in this situation to begin with.
"More incoming!" Captain Panaka shouted as another tank rolled in. "We need to make for the hangar bay to draw the fire away from the queen!"
Sabé gave a curt nod, nearly dislodging the heavy headdress resting atop her head. "We'll deal with these droids quickly, then, right, Talik?"
The twi'lek nodded quickly moving to join her master, both solidifying their stances and extending their hands into the air towards where the tank was moving closer to them.
Sabé's control of the Force was far better than Talik's, that much was quite evident to the girl, even before they'd met. Now Talik's arms shook from the pressure of the Force, but Sabé's were still. The tank tilted on its side, crashing into the side of the wall of a nearby building, squashing a few battle droids as it did so.
A nod to Panaka sent the captain racing for the secondary door that led to the hangar bay, with the handmaidens following swiftly afterwards, Talik and Sabé coming up the rear, blocking blaster bolts with their lightsabers.
Unfortunately, more were arriving, despite how slow the battle droids and their tanks moved, so the two Jedi fell back, the door shutting behind them.
"They're still coming!" Saché gasped, clutching a stitch in her side, even as Sabé knelt to pull the paneling off the side of the door, ripping out the wires from within, sealing the blast doors.
"Not anymore," Sabé said with certainty, returning her 'saber to her side and hefting her blaster. "Come on, we don't have any time to waste."
Panaka grunted in agreement before the group was racing down the hallway, blasters and a lightsaber held ready for any attack, but they were unhindered in their efforts to reach the main hangar bay.
"Good, you're here," Padmé said when they came across her grouping. "What held you?"
Laughter bubbled from Sabé's lips before she could silence it. "Oh, you know," she said airily, "just a horde of battle droids."
Padmé grinned while Obi-Wan shook his head in exasperation and Qui-Gon gave a small sigh of his own. One Amidala was bad enough, but now there were two, and that wouldn't end well.
But that thought had no use in their current situation, so Qui-Gon forced it back as the two merged groups joined up to storm into the hangar bay in a sudden explosion of noise.
Sabé kept a steady hand on her 'saber at her side, but this time she didn't bother using it, keeping a tight grip on her blaster instead as red blaster bolts were shot at them from varying directions. Talik ducked and dived, her emerald blade clashing with the red bolts, but she couldn't silence the yelp of pain from a glancing strike against one of her lekku.
Anakin was keeping his head down as he searched for a place to hide that was out of the way of the two attacking forces. Unfortunately, there weren't all too many places a boy of his size could hide in a hangar bay like the one they were in. The best he could do was hide in the cockpit of one of the starfighters that Artoo had locked himself into and watch the battle commence.
Eirtaé had been hit on her dominant blaster arm and was forced to switch to her left and Rabé had to be dragged across the floor to keep her out of the way of anymore damaging hits. The Jedi were faring much better, he noticed, even Sabé with only a blaster in her hand, though some of the targets she was barely managing to hit.
The other starfighters with their pilots were taking off, but the battle droids still had tanks, and one of the shots hit a starfighter, clipping its wing and sending it pin wheeling downwards to explode against the ground.
Sabé took down the last two battle droids with two successive shots. "We've no doubt lost the element of surprise."
"But we were expecting that," Obi-Wan mentioned beside her, powering his 'saber down and his words earned him a wry smile from her painted lips and a small roll of her eyes.
"It certainly would have made things easier," Sabé had to concede with a small sigh, "ah, well."
"Where to next?" Talik asked, and it was Padmé that answered her.
"My guess is that the Viceroy's in the throne room," she said with an annoyed frown, owing, no doubt, to the fact that the throne room was technically hers for the term.
"I agree," concurred Qui-Gon.
"Blue group, with me!" Sabé called. "We're taking the long way round!"
The few handmaidens and members of the palace security detail followed after her and Talik as they left through the door they'd come in.
"Red group, this way!" Captain Panaka barked out to the rest of them, leading them towards a different door.
They started to move and Anakin stood up quickly in his cockpit, not wanting to be left behind. "Hey!" he called. "Wait for me!"
Obi-Wan's eyes shifted to his and Anakin could practically feel him asking him to remain where he was, but Obi-Wan wasn't saying anything and the feeling just left Anakin a bit confused.
"Anakin, stay where you are," Qui-Gon told him instead.
"But, I—!"
"Stay in that cockpit!"
Anakin sulked as he sat back down with a petulant frown on his face, but he still did as the Jedi asked.
As they made to go through the door, it slid open to reveal a dark-cloaked figure. The figure lifted its head to reveal the same yellowed eyes and the red and black-tattooed face as the Zebrak male Qui-Gon had fought on Tatooine, the one Obi-Wan remembered Sabé describing from her nightmares.
And Obi-Wan could sense nothing but darkness coming from him. He was practically drowning in the Dark Side of the Force.
"We'll handle this," Qui-Gon said and Padmé nodded sharply, waving her hand to her troops.
"We'll take a separate route," Padmé agreed as they moved to the left hand side of the hangar bay, leaving only the Jedi to throw off their robes and lighting their 'sabers.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Sabé muttered, leaning against the wall, trying to keep out of sight from the battle droids.
"You always have a bad feeling, Master," Talik hissed from the opposite wall.
"Given our current situation, that should hardly come as a surprise," Sabé replied, a smile gracing her lips as she handed her blaster off to the young man standing beside her, calling her twin 'sabers to her hands. "Ready?"
Talik gave a short nod and both Jedi leapt out into the open, their combined three 'sabers flaring to life.
"Two Jedi!" one battle droid called out before the others leapt out to join them. Sabé twisted, her blades spinning around her as she blocked and attacked the rain of blaster bolts aimed towards their group, and the group retaliated in kind.
Talik sliced through the last battle droid with a flourish. "They're going to keep coming if those starfighters don't shut down the droid control ship."
"Patience, my young Padawan," Sabé hummed. "A little faith can go a long way."
Talik scowled and Eirtaé couldn't stifle her snort. "Are you always like this?"
"It keeps things interesting," Sabé replied with a careless shrug, "on a good day."
"Master!" Talik groaned, but Sabé ignored her, kneeling to press a palm against the ground, spreading out her Force awareness, searching for anymore enemies.
"Eirtaé, what direction should we be making in?" Sabé asked, keeping most of her attention on searching for further enemies in their path.
"Right until the next hallway, then the first staircase up to the third floor, the throne room is the only room on the third floor," Eirtaé explained, moving forward to Sabé's side with wide eyes. "Can you sense our enemies?"
Talik snorted, rolling her eyes at the question, causing the handmaiden to arch an eyebrow. "Master can use Force sense, it allows her to sense those close to her and sometimes others thoughts and feelings."
"Can you?" Eirtaé asked.
The lavender-skinned twi'lek drew a hand up, using her thumb and index finger to indicate how small her skill was in that area. "A little; Master's way better at it, though."
"I need to concentrate, Talik," Sabé warned, working hard to focus on sensing those within the palace. She could feel Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon on the lower level along with a familiar dark presence.
Unease rippled across Sabé and Talik's master-padawan bond and Talik knelt beside her master. "Master Sabé? What's wrong?"
"Nothing we need to concern ourselves with for the time being," Sabé said heavily, directing her attention upwards to where they were currently before following the route that Eirtaé had described to her. "Currently, it seems there are…twenty-seven battle droids between us and the throne room…" She frowned, using the Theran Force-listening technique to focus her attention on those within the throne room, as it seemed that the Viceroy had captured Padmé and her group of fighters.
"Your little insurrection is at an end," he said, and Sabé opened her eyes, standing swiftly.
"Nute Gunray has Padmé in the throne room," the Jedi Knight said. "We must move swiftly, now."
They all gave nods in return and Sabé turned to Talik with a smile. "Want to freak out some battle droids?"
Talik's shoulders sagged. "Do I really have a choice?"
Sabé gave a short laugh before Talik ducked around the corner with a congenial smile on her face as she waved at the battle droids beyond.
"Hello!" she said cheerfully. "Nice day for a rebellion, right?"
"Who are you?" one battle droid asked.
"Is it a rebel?" another asked.
"It doesn't look armed," said a third.
"I'm Talik Shala," Talik said, her smile widening into a feral grin, "Jedi Padawan."
And then she called her 'saber hilt to her hand, the green blade flaring to life as the others leapt out to join her.
"Fire on them!"
"Roger, roger!"
Talik leapt over their heads, blocking blaster bolts as her master twirled hers in a circular motion, acting as a shield to the handmaidens and security volunteers who fired on the droids in earnest, cutting them all down in mere moments.
"You Jedi aren't bad," Fé, a handmaiden that currently had her arm in a makeshift sling, said with a bit of grudging admiration.
Sabé smiled. "We do try," she said, powering her 'sabers down and clipping them back to her waist as she reached for a spare blaster. "Come on, the only way we're going to get the queen out of this mess is for me to play decoy."
And with that said, Sabé took the steps up two at a time.
Nute Gunray was smirking at her with Rune Haako by his side and Padmé really hated that look. She wanted nothing more than to wipe that smirk off his face, but given her current situation, that just wasn't possible.
"Your little insurrection is at an end, Your Highness," the Viceroy told her with certainty. "Time for you to sign the treaty and end this pointless debate in the Senate."
A muscle jumped in Padmé's jaw as she clenched her teeth together, her shoulders tense. But, it seemed, she needn't have worried, because another voice pierced through the silence that had followed his words.
"Viceroy! Your occupation here has ended!" Sabé called, looking every bit the Queen of Naboo that Padmé had hoped she would. There was a cut on one of her white-painted cheeks, staining it red, and her battle dress was singed from blaster-fire. She certainly looked like more of a queen than Padmé did. "I will sign no treaty!"
And she and her group raised their blasters and fired on the battle droids. They fell in a shower of sparks before she and her group darted to the right, no doubt making to draw the rest of the droids after them rather than staying with Padmé and her group.
"After her!" Nute Gunray commanded and the droids hastened to comply to his demands. "This one is a decoy!" He turned towards Padmé. "Your queen will not get away with this."
But Padmé ignored him to dart around to her throne, sitting down on the seat and pressing one of the security buttons on the side that opened a panel that contained hidden blasters. She grabbed two, throwing one to Captain Panaka with a call of "Captain!"
They dispatched the droids in moments between the two of them before turning the blasters on the Neimodians who jerked back with a flicker a fear evident on their faces.
"Jam the doors," Captain Panaka ordered as his men relieved the cut-down droids of their weapons, moving to secure the door and the window to ascertain the situation in the palace square below.
"Now, Viceroy," Padmé said, her voice just a tad smug, "we will discuss a new treaty. As my sister said, your occupation here has ended."
"Don't be absurd," the Viceroy countered. "There are too few of you. It won't be long before hundreds of destroyer droids break in to rescue us."
"Never underestimate Nabooans," Captain Panaka warned.
And four Jedi had certainly evened the odds a bit, even if two of them had been sidetracked by that figure in the dark cloak at the hangar bay. Sabé and Talik were certainly making good time on their own destruction of the droids to make up for their companions.
"Droidekas!" came a shout from the hallway, shortly followed by several successive blaster bolts before something metallic was shot through the wall and Sabé peered through the hole a bit sheepishly as they all looked from the battered remains of the droideka that she had forced through the wall.
"Sorry about that," Sabé apologized. "There's more on the way, you lot had better stay in there until we've got it sorted."
Sabé was exhausted. She would have never thought that droids could bring her to such a state, but, to be fair, there were a lot of droids.
"Can we-stop?" Talik gasped, bracing her hands against her knees, her face shining with sweat from her exertion. "I don't think -I can move…" She fell to her knees breathing hard and the others were much the same, though not nearly as worn out as the two Jedi who had been leaping around in their efforts to dismantle the droids and defend their companions.
"That might be a bit difficult," Eirtaé remarked, "since there's more headed this way."
Sabé twisted her 'sabers in her hands, tensing her form, ready for an attack when a scream echoed through Force, rippling through it like a wave breaking against the shoreline. Sabé froze and Talik clutched her head with a startled cry of "What was that?"
"What was what?" one of the security volunteers asked in confusion behind them.
"Obi-Wan," Sabé murmured, sensing his pain and feeling Qui-Gon's force-signature all but disappear. "Don't worry about it," she added to Talik. "We'll sort it out later."
"Sort it out later, Master?" Talik gaped at her, her eyes wide and stunned. "But you heard—!"
"Not now, Talik!" Sabé warned as more battle droids approached their location. "We don't have time to run down to Obi-Wan, focus on what you can do right here and now!"
Talik frowned as she used the wall to pull herself upright. Obi-Wan was her master's friend, after all, if she could refrain from rushing down to assist him, then so could Talik.
Sabé leapt forward, cart-wheeling over the droids, landing just behind them. She drew her hand up to her painted lips to whistle sharply at them.
"This way you bucket of bolts!"
"Look a Jedi!" one droid cried. "After her!"
"You idiot," the other said, "that's the queen!"
Sabé gave a shrug, shaking her head slightly as though she was ashamed. "I did expect a bit more from you, I will admit, but really, this is just sad."
"What are you talking about?"
Sabé smiled, drawing her 'sabers up, their brightness causing a glow across her skin. "Obviously, I'm the distraction."
Indeed, as soon as she had begun to speak, her padawan and those in her group that still possessed blasters had begun to shoot at the droids, barring the three that had been distracted by her leaping behind them.
She swung her 'sabers ripping through their midsections and leaping them dismembered on the ground.
"Master, you're making me look bad!" Talik griped.
Sabé released a short laugh at that. "My very young padawan, you should know that masters excel at making their students look bad, that is why they are the masters." She lifted a sardonic eyebrow as Talik merely huffed in annoyance.
"Any more droids incoming?" Yané asked as a young man moved to the window to chance a look outside.
"No," he replied, his voice coming out a bit stunned, "I think the droid control ship has been destroyed!"
"It has?" Fé yelped, racing to his side, looking down into the square where all the droids could be seen keeled over and the tanks resting against the ground rather than hovering above it.
"Thank the stars for that," Sabé sighed in relief, deactivating her weapons, clipping them to her waist once more, before raising her hands to rip the headdress from her head, an action that had her wincing in discomfort.
"Hey! What're you doing?" Eirtaé demanded, flitting to her side, her face set in a mask of disapproval despite the fact that she was addressing a Jedi Knight how was several years older than herself. "You're going to rip your hair out at this rate!"
"Better than wearing that headdress a moment long," Sabé replied without a trace of doubt as she raked a hand through her brown tresses. It was annoying that they couldn't be kept in her typical braids, but that was an issue that would have to be remedied at a later date. "I need to check on Obi-Wan. Talik stay with them."
She barely heard Talik utter an affirmation before she was rushing off, scaling her way down the stairs, making for the power generator beneath the palace. That Zebrak male that Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had been fighting…the last time she'd crossed his path, he'd relieved her of an arm…and now he'd left Obi-Wan without a master, as she had felt Qui-Gon's force-signature disappear completely only moments before.
But would her friend be all right?
Sabé turned left, rushing faster when she saw him beyond the electric rays, but she had to stop five rays short when they cycled on once more. She gritted her teeth together in impatience, glowering at the ray generator before turning her attention to Obi-Wan.
She could only see his back as he had leaned his body protectively over his fallen master.
"Oh, Obi-Wan," Sabé murmured sadly.
When his master had been struck down must have been the moment when he cried out. Sabé remembered a time when she had thought her master had been dead for a brief few seconds and the thought had been mildly terrifying (Yoda was the Grandmaster, after all) and she had been grief-stricken before she'd raced to his side and reminded herself that their master-padawan bond was still in place.
But in that scenario, Sabé's master had survived, and it was clear that Obi-Wan's had not.
Sabé waited patiently for the rays to shut off before she could finally reach his side, and then she knelt.
"Obi-Wan," she said gently, reaching out a hand to his shoulder and Obi-Wan lifted his body from the protective shield over his master he has formed to look to his friend with eyes red and tears streaked down his cheeks.
"Sabé," he croaked her name and Sabé wasn't sure she had ever seen him look so vulnerable.
Her eyes softened as she cupped his cheek with one hand, smudging away the tears before throwing her arms around him.
He clutched to her battle dress and she to the back of his tunic. "I'm so sorry, Obi-Wan," she said numbly, "I heard your scream through the Force and…" She swallowed thickly, her mind drawing up images of pain and she slammed them away violently.
"It was the Sith," he spoke throatily into her ear and Sabé jerked back, releasing him in her surprise.
"Sith?" she gasped.
She had never imagined that her childhood attacker was actually a Sith!
"What happened to him?" she asked, eyes darting around, searching for an enemy that could not be seen or even sensed.
"He's dead," Obi-Wan said frostily.
"Oh," Sabé said weakly. The Sith were said to have been very powerful…that he was skilled enough to cut one down whilst his master had fallen spoke volumes about his skills. Sabé couldn't help but be impressed.
"Master," Talik's voice came from the comm.-link on Sabé's arm, making both jump at the noise, "the survivors are gathering on the main level."
"We'll meet you there," Sabé promised as Obi-Wan wiped the vestiges of his tears from his cheeks before pulling Qui-Gon's body up until he'd situated him over one shoulder.
"You ready?" she asked him just as gently as before as she lifted Qui-Gon's 'saber from the ground (she opted not to remark on the fact that Obi-Wan's was missing).
Obi-Wan nodded and Sabé deactivated the electric rays to allow them to pass.
The battle had been won, but at what cost?
AN: Probably the one thing I'm really looking forward to writing in this fic is the Clone War section, because Sabé's going to get into a lot of stuff and its going to be chaotic and amazing…and Obi-Wan hasn't even started his Soresu training yet, so Aayla's going to drag him off to train first chance she gets. I assure you, he will be the Soresu Master he is in canon.
Thanks for the patience, I understand it's been a good long while since the last update, but now we're for the most part done with the Phantom Menace, which means we'll get back to the good stuff at the Jedi Temple.
It's a fanfic update month for me, so there might be more for Christmas, but I make no promises.
As always: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!
