Divided Loyalties:

As Anakin stared down at Dooku's body, the feeling of wrongness intensified. Why that would be so, he had no idea, but he found himself thinking, I shouldn't have done that.

"You did well, Anakin." With Palpatine's praise, Anakin forced himself to stop looking at the dead Count. He dropped the Sith lightsabre that hissed unpleasantly in the back of his mind and clutched his own like an anchor for his sanity as he turned towards the Chancellor. The man's further words of reassurance helped ease the feeling of wrongness only slightly. "He was too dangerous to be kept alive. Believe me, the galaxy will be a much better place without him."

Anakin walked up to Palpatine, unlocking the manacles holding him to the chair as he did so with a simple flick of the Force. "Yes, but he was an unarmed prisoner." Kark! Another bad pun! Why isn't Obi-Wan awake to groan at them with me? "I shouldn't have done that. It's not the Jedi way." Obi-Wan's gonna kill me when he wakes up! And the Council! I don't even want to think about what the Council will say!

Palpatine rose to his feet, surprisingly smoothly for someone with old bones who must have been sitting there for hours, and rubbed at his wrists where the electrified binders had left faint marks. "It's only natural. He cut off your arm… You wanted revenge. It wasn't the first time."

Well… yes… but also no. I got my revenge cutting off his hands. I didn't feel driven to do more. "No." Anakin shook his head once. "It wasn't… like that this time."

Palpatine gave him a look as if he thought he was lying. "Anakin. Remember what you told me about your mother… and the Sand People? Besides, he was threatening the life of the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic."

Anakin inhaled slowly, trying to sort out his emotions but failing to finding peace with anything (as usual). But to appease his friend, he simply said, "I suppose."

Palpatine touched his shoulder reassuringly. "Should there be an inquiry, I shall vouch for your bravery, worry not." He flashed a smile and then brushed past Anakin. "Now, we must leave before more security droids arrive."

The young Knight turned and quickly caught up to the Chancellor. As he stepped off the short dais, he finally hooked his lightsabre to his belt despite how much he'd rather just hold it. But he didn't want to look clingy to Palpatine (who'd once mentioned that he thought the Jedi were too reliant on their lightsabres when the Force was supposed to have so much more to offer than just the ability to control a lethal laser beam), so... on the belt it went. Looking up, he saw Obi-Wan still unconscious on the floor with the collapsed balcony still half covering his legs. Master!

Anakin ran to Obi-Wan's side as Palpatine continued towards the stairs that led up to the elevators. With a quick shove of the Force, he pushed the balcony back far enough to free Obi-Wan and then rolled him over onto his back. He was relieved to see Obi-Wan's chest rise and fall as he took a breath even though he already knew he wasn't dead; their bond was still strong if a little quiet right now. He was more concerned about the other man's legs, though, worried that they may have gotten crushed despite all his efforts to save him.

"Anakin." He looked up at his name and saw the Chancellor paused half on the first step. "There's no time. We must get off this ship before it's too late."

As if to confirm Palpatine's words, the deck under his knee shook with more far-off explosions.

Regardless, Anakin wasn't leaving a loved one behind. Ever. Not if he could help it. "He seems to be all right," he protested. Whether he'll be able to walk when he wakes up is a little sketchy, but we'll ignore that for now.

Palpatine gave him a stern look. "Leave him, or we'll never make it."

Anakin was more than a little shocked at the Chancellor's callous disregard for one of the Republic's best warriors. And there's no way in any hell I'm leaving Obi-Wan here! His expression reflected that thought as he glared at Palpatine. "His fate will be the same as ours," he vowed. Either we're all getting off this ship or none of us are.

Palpatine only looked resigned. Ignoring the sense of wrongness that continued to follow him, Anakin picked up the man who meant so much to him and slung him over his shoulders like a new-born bantha calf. (And didn't that bring back memories from his childhood on Tatooine that he'd rather not remember.) Staggering only slightly under Obi-Wan's deadweight until he found his footing, he rose and made for the stairs with grim determination.

Palpatine shook his head, a reluctant smile carving his face into different lines. "As stubborn as ever, my young friend."

He flashed the old man a grin. "You know me, if I can't do things the hard way, why bother?"

This brought a chuckle from Palpatine as they made it to the central elevator. Both of their expressions fell into 'uh oh' mode as they noticed that none of the indicator lights were lit on any of the panels. The power was out.

"Elevator's not working," Anakin grumbled. "That's just kriffing great."

"Can you fix it?"

The dreadnaught rocked with more explosions. Anakin glanced outside to see a Republic Venator bombarding it. There was possibly even two of them if the contradictory rocking of the ship was any indication. Anakin grimaced. "Not fast enough to do any good. But…" Shifting his grip on Obi-Wan to free up his left hand, Anakin dug in his belt until he found his commlink and prayed to the Force that it worked for once. "Artoo?"

"Master!" the droid beeped back immediately. "You're still functioning!"

The droid's unfailing loyalty brought a flicker of a smile to his lips. "Yes. For now." The decking shook alarmingly again. "Artoo, activate elevator 3224."

"Okay! I will do right away!"

Anakin pocketed his comm and smiled at Palpatine. "There, see, nothing to worry about. We'll be out of here in…"

BOOOOOOOOM!

I really need to learn to stop asking the Force to laugh at me and prove me wrong, Anakin thought as the deck beneath them started to tilt backwards. In a desperate bid to not fly backwards into the observation area and crash into the transparisteel windows, he wrenched the elevator doors open with the Force and surged for the opening. Obi-Wan's limp body made him awkward, but Anakin managed to catch the edge of the door frame with one hand and pull himself into the elevator shaft.

Fortunately, Palpatine had managed to do the same thing.

As the previously vertical shaft finished it's horizontal alignment, indicating the cruiser was being pulled into Coruscant's gravity well in a sharp nose dive, they gained their feet and looked at each other. "What now?" the Chancellor asked with wide eyes, looking helpless.

"Run," Anakin advised only half a second before he was doing exactly that, clinging to Obi-Wan's arm and leg to hold him steady on his shoulders. He went as fast as he thought Palpatine could keep up with as he made for the lower decks.

They'd only been running for maybe twenty seconds when the shaft started to quickly reorient itself back into a vertical configuration. Oh poodoo!

One second, Anakin was running. The next, he was sliding on his side and front, protecting Obi-Wan as best as he could. The burn was definitely unpleasant, but so far down on his list of concerns at the moment, the Knight barely felt it. Palpatine grabbed his leg in a perfect example of a coward's helplessness, but Anakin didn't blame him for it; the Chancellor was old and feeble after all and it was Anakin's duty to protect him.

As he slid, Anakin started looking for something to grab to stop their fall.

A small electrical cable was the lucky victim.

Letting go of Obi-Wan's leg, his mechanical hand flashed up and snatched the cable and clenched tight.

The sudden combined weight of the three of them on his mechanical arm partially tore it away from where it joined his skin, muscles, and nerve endings right below the elbow. It was agonizing, but the prosthetic held. He just wasn't sure for how long. This is like when Obi-Wan and I were chained to Dooku and tried to vault Hondo's perimeter wall, but sooooo much worse.

To make matters even more worrisome, Anakin's left hand was also slowly starting to lose its grip on Obi-Wan's sleeve as the (somehow still working) artificial gravity in the ship did it's job too well. And that just wasn't acceptable. So he gathered the Force around Obi-Wan in preparation and then with a wince, he let go of his Master so that he could catch him immediately with a Force grip. Obi-Wan ended up somewhat upside-down, but at least Anakin had a better hold of him and it took a lot of the stress off his mech arm.

But he wouldn't be able to hold him this way for very long either. The day had just been too long and Anakin was having a hard time concentrating through the pain in his arm.

"Obi-Wan!" he yelled down their bond at the same time as he pushed what little Force energy he could spare through it. "Wake up! Wake up now!" Anakin rejoiced when he felt a flicker of awareness through their bond. "Come ON, Master! Time to wake the kark up!"

"Stop yelling, Ani," Obi-Wan blearily replied. "Surely lightsabre training can wait until after I've had my morning tea?"

If the situation wasn't so dire, Anakin would have laughed at the confused state of his former Master. (Was I really that bad when I was little?) But it was, so Anakin's reply was still a little curt. "No! Now open your eyes and climb up here or something before I drop you!"

"What?!"