Anakin and Obi-Wan wait on the other side of Padme's bedroom door.
"She barely even recognized me," Anakin laments, "I thought about her every day since we parted... and she's forgotten me completely."
"Anakin, you're focusing on the negative again," Obi-Wan tells him, "Be mindful of your thoughts. She was glad to see us. Now let's check the security here."
"Yes, my master."
The vast Jedi Temple sits on an endless flat plain, silhouetted against the traffic-filled sky. Mace Windu and Yoda walk down the long hallways, silhouetted by a lit room at the end.
"Why couldn't we see this attack on the Senator?," Mace asks.
"Masking the future, is this disturbance in the Force."
"The prophecy is coming true, the Dark Side is growing."
"And only those who have turned to the Dark Side can sense the possibilities of the future. Only going through the Dark Side can we see."
"It's been ten years, and the Sith still have not shown themselves. Do you think they are behind this?"
"...Out there, they are. A certainty that is."
"Do you think Obi-Wan's apprentice will be able to bring balance to the Force?"
"If Skywalker chooses to follow his destiny, only then will there be balance."
There is a long silence as they walk away. Only footsteps are heard.
In her bedroom, Padme is asleep in her bed, lit only by the light of the city outside her window coming through the blinds. A security drone hovers in the corner of the bedroom. Anakin is standing in the living room. He is in a meditative state. It is quiet until the sound of quiet foosteps can be heard in the corridor outside the apartment. His eyes dart around the room as he reaches for his lightsaber, then smiles and puts it back in his belt. The door to the apartment slides open, and Obi-Wan enters.
"Captain Panaka has more than enough men downstairs. No assassin will try that way. Any activity up here?"
"Quiet as a tomb. I don't like just waiting here for something to happen to her."
"She programmed a security drone to warn us if there's an intruder."
As Padme sleeps, a probe droid approaches outside her window. It sends out several small arms that attach to the window, creating sparks that shut down the security system and the security drone powers down. Then a large arm cuts a small hole in the glass. As the small section of glass is removed from the window the droid attaches a little tube to the window. Two slithering creatures exit the tube, crawl through the blinds and head toward the sleeping Padme.
The Jedi continue their conversation in the main room of the apartment, "You look tired, Anakin."
"I don't sleep well, anymore."
"Because of your mother?"
"I don't know why I keep dreaming about her these days. I haven't seen her since I was a kid."
"Dreams pass in time."
"I'd rather dream of Padme. Just being around her again is..."
"Mind your thoughts, Anakin, they betray you. You've made a commitment to the Jedi order... a commitment not easily broken... and don't forget she's a politician."
"It's true, politicians are not to be trusted, but Padme's different."
"That wasn't what I meant."
"I know. I took a vow. I cannot have any connections."
"And do you truly believe you cannot trust any politician? You should not generalize. There is good in the Senate."
"I suppose Chancellor Palpatine is a good man, but -"
Anakin's thoughts are interrupted as he senses something in Padme's room. "I sense it too," Obi-Wan says as they both rush to her aid. The poisonous creatures are inches from Padme's face. Their mouths are open, and wicked stinger tongues flick out. The Jedi burst into the room just before Padme wakes up. Anakin throws himself in front of her, slicing in half the deadly creatures with his lightsaber. Obi-Wan sees the droid hovering outside the window and races straight at it, crashing through the blinds as he goes through the window.
He flings himself outside, grabbing onto the deadly machine before it can flee, sending glass shards thousands of feet below. The probe droid sinks under the weight of Obi-Wan but manages to stay afloat and fly away, with the Jedi hanging on for dear life. Speeders pass them from all sides as they fly through the vast city. "Stay here," Anakin tells Padme as he rushes out of the apartment. He passes Captain Panaka who has his pistol drawn. The Probe droid sends several protective electrical shocks across its surface, causing Obi-Wan to almost lose his grip as they dart in and out of the speeder traffic.
Anakin charges out of the building and runs to a line of parked speeders. He vaults into an open one and takes off, gunning it fast toward the lines of speeder traffic high above. The droid bumps against a wall, hoping to knock the Jedi loose, then it moves behind a speeder afterburner to scorch him. It takes the Jedi wildly between buildings and finally skims across a rooftop as Obi-Wan is forced to lift his legs, tenaciously hanging on. Then it heads for a dirty, beat-up speeder hidden in an alcove of a building about twenty stories up. When the pilot of the speeder, a scruffy bounty hunter called Zam Wesell, sees the droid approach with Obi-Wan hanging on, she pulls a long rifle out of the speeder and starts to fire. "I have a bad feeling about this," Obi-Wan mutters just before the droid explodes and he drops.
Obi-Wan falls fifty stories, until a speeder drops down next to him, and he manages to grab onto the back end of the speeder and haul himself toward the cockpit. The Jedi struggles to climb into the passenger seat of the open speeder and sit down next to the driver, Anakin.
"What took you so long?"
"Oh, you know, Master, I couldn't find a speeder I really liked, with an open cockpit... and with the right speed capabilities... and then you know I had to get a really gonzo color..."
"If you'd spend as much time focusing on the Force as you do on your wit, young Padawan, you would rival Master Yoda."