Anakin was no longer worried about Obi-Wan, or Palpatine, or himself, or the battering this ship they were on was taking. He was no longer aware of any of these things. His world - his universe - had narrowed down to the lightsaber in his hands and the man who was his partner in this intricate dance of death.
Step, turn, strike, block, leap, roll, all in a crystalline stillness enclosing mind and body. Anakin wasn't trying to win, he wasn't trying to survive, he was merely being. Living fully in the moment with the Force flowing through and around him in a warm golden stream. Then, suddenly, it ended.
The Sith miscalculated his block by just a fraction of an inch and the edge of Anakin's saber met wrists rather than blade, slicing through both. Anakin caught the red lightsaber as it fell and crossed it with his own and forcing the Sith to his knees with both blades at his thoat.
Normal consciousness returned and he stood there, panting, wondering what to do next.
"Good, Anakin, good!" Palpatine was laughing with relief. Then his voice changed, hardened. "Kill him."
"No!" That was Obi-Wan, still trapped in his column of light. "No, Anakin. Not a disarmed prisoner. That is not the Jedi Way."
"Kill him now!" Palpatine ordered harshly.
But Anakin lifted the blades and extinguished them. "I'm sorry, sir, I can't do that." Palpatine wasn't himself. He'd been terrorized, maybe even tortured, naturally he wanted his tormentor dead.
With a growl the Sith lunged to his feet, not at Anakin but at Palpatine, still pinioned helplessly in his chair. Instantly Anakin's blade re-ignited and sliced through his neck. The headless corpse fell over the Chancellor's knees.
Palpatine looked like he was going to faint. Anakin quickly pulled the body off him and waved a hand, freeing him from his bonds. "I'm sorry about that, sir. I didn't expect him to attack unarmed like that."
The Chancellor was trembling so hard he could barely stand. "He was an animal...cruel, irrational, I told you to kill him."
"I understand your feelings, sir, but such is not the Jedi Way." Obi-Wan said firmly. "Anakin, get the Chancellor out of here."
The floor quivered under their feet as the ship absorbed another hit. "Yes. Yes we must leave. Palpatine agreed.
"Can you walk, sir." Anakin asked, concerned.
The Chancellor forced a brave smile. "Of course." letting go of Anakin's arm he headed determinedly, and surprisingly quickly, for the stairs. He sensed Anakin wasn't following and turned to look back.
The young Jedi crossed to where his friend hovered, trapped in light like an insect in amber, and studied the floor beneath him reaching out with the Force to locate the hidden mechanism of the field.
"Anakin what are you doing?" Obi-Wan demanded. "Get the Chancellor out of here before the whole spire breaks loose!"
"Shut up, I'm busy." Anakin answered, focused on the circuitry beneath their feet.
"He's right, Anakin, we must leave." Palpatine cried.
"Go!" Obi-Wan fairly shouted.
"Not without you." Anakin answered calmly. He ignited his saber and plunged it straight into the heart of the field generator embedded under the metal deck. The light vanished and Obi-Wan tumbled free, Anakin caught him. "That's the second time this mission you've ordered me to abandon you, General. You know you've got a real martyr complex going there."
"Very funny." Obi-Wan shook himself free and headed swiftly for the stair.
"This has not been one of our better days." Qui-Gon observed with wry understatement.
They were trapped in an enclosed gantry overlooking the main engineering floor with both doors sealed and at least six destroyer droids crawling over the outside of the transparentpanels looking for a way in. He glanced at his Master. "Can they blast through the windows?"
"Difficult to say." Dooku replied, folding his arms and considering the situation with the calm detachment of a master tactician. "The skin field is meant to protect observers from plasma leaks and reactor explosions as well as normal radiation. But concentrated blaster fire is another matter. Perhaps we should open the door, that way they could only enter one at a time."
"How are the boys doing?" Qui-Gon asked.
Dooku consulted his holo-scanner. "They seem to have overcome their difficulties." he reported. "They have the Chancellor and are about to leave -"
The deck shuddered violently under their feet. The two Masters barely kept their balance and a couple of their attackers slid off the slick surface of the windows. "That was a full broadside by the feel of it." Dooku frowned.
"Your cease fire order clearly didn't get through." Qui-Gon noted.
"I'm afraid not -" Dooku broke off again as the deck began to tilt. The Jedi anchored themselves to wall struts as the gantry went from horizontal to vertical. The destroyer droids weren't as flexible, they slid off the windows and out of sight.
"Gravity shear!" Dooku said grimly.
"Or we're going down." Qui-Gon suggested calmly.
"Let's hope not." Dooku responded. "In either case this is our chance." He used the Force to open the blast doors at both ends of the gallery. Two destroyers tumbled past them and out the doors at the bottom, which Dooku quickly slammed shut. "Let's get out of here."
Anakin and Obi-Wan pulled the Chancellor through the elevator doors into what was now less a shaft than a very, very long passage. "We'll have to move fast." Anakin said. "Can you run, sir?"
Palpatine managed another frayed but valiant smile. "I can try."
In fact he did surprisingly well, keeping up with Anakin's long loping stride as Obi-Wan brought up the rear. But they weren't fast enough.
"I knew it." Obi-Wan said gloomily as the shaft began to tilt back to the perpendicular changing their run to a slide and then free fall. Only Jedi quick reflexes allowed the two to catch themselves, and their charge, on the plentiful handholds.
The Chancellor's eyes were wide with fear. "Anakin -"
"Take it easy, sir, we've got you." he answered soothingly. "All we have to do is climb down to those doors just below -"
"Anakin," Obi-Wan interrupted, "look up."
He did. Uh, oh. This was a heck a time for the elevator to come. He pulled out his comlink, "Artoo, shut it down!"
"Too late." Obi-Wan said crisply. "Jump!"
They did, falling just ahead of the lift. Maintaining their grip on Palpatine the two Jedi managed to pull out and throw their lines one handed and use them to simultaneously arrest their fall and swing themselves through the open doors at the bottom of the shaft.
They landed with a thump on the lobby floor as the pursuing elevator shattered spectacularly behind them.
"Are you all right, sir?" Anakin asked the Chancellor worriedly.
Palpatine staggered to his feet trying to straighten his robes. "Tell me, Anakin, are all your rescues so - so - " words failed him.
"Fraught with hairbreadth escapes?" Obi-Wan supplied. "Yes."
Anakin tried to glare at him, but couldn't. It was true after all. "Let's get to the hanger and see if we can find anything flyable."
Palpatine looked anxiously from one to the other." When you came in here didn't you have a plan for getting out?"
"Yes, sir we did." Obi-Wan answered. "Unfortunately it seems to have gone wrong."
"Along with everything else." Anakin muttered.
Qui-Gon and Dooku found their way aft blocked by yet another set of sealed blast doors, but this time red lights warned there was vacuum beyond. The older Master pulled out his comlink. "Obi-Wan, Anakin do you copy?"
On the other side of the hanger bay, facing another pair of sealed doors Obi-Wan raised his own link to his lips. "Yes, Master. The hanger's lost atmosphere we can't get in."
"So we see." Dooku's dark velvet voice replied. "we'll have to try for the escape pods."
"Yes, Master, we'll meet you there."
"Artoo," Anakin said into his own comlink, "are you there?" a slightly wilted wheep answered him. "Tell me about it later, okay? Get to the upper level escape pods."
Dooku and Qui-Gon were forced to pick their way through the most heavily damaged part of the ship. The broad corridor had buckled and twisted under the force of the broadside. The coolant tanks in the walls had burst and the liquid spurted out through cracks and holes. Drenched yet again the two Masters sloshed resignedly forward through the deepening puddles.
"At least there are no Nitto Fobos," Qui-Gon remarked, looking on the bright side, "or Dianogas."
Dooku, now decidedly and uncharacteristically bedraggled, gave him one of his darkest looks. "Somehow I am not consoled."
Qui-Gon looked ahead, hulking metal forms blocked the passage. "Super-battle droids."
"Good." said Dooku with a thin smile. "I'm in the mood to destroy something."
"Master!"
"Dark emotions have their place, Qui-Gon." Dooku returned calmly, igniting his saber and raising it to guard.
The younger Jedi and their charge had a much easier time of it. Too easy.
"I don't like it." Obi-Wan muttered as they trotted down the long, broad and empty passage. "They must know we're here. We should have encountered some kind of opposition."
"This ship's in bad trouble." Anakin pointed out. "The crew may have more important things on their mind than a couple of Jedi."
"Let's be grateful for small favors, not question them!" the Chancellor contributed breathlessly.
Suddenly a wavering blue energy field flashed into existence, surrounding them. Obi-Wan turned to Anakin. "How did this happen? We're smarter than this!"
"Apparently not." he answered ruefully.
Palpatine said nothing, eyes flickering anxiously between his two rescuers.
"I am open to suggestions." Obi-Wan said.
"I say - patience." Anakin said. Obi-Wan and Palpatine gave him almost identical looks of disbelief. "Artoo will be along any minute and deactivate the field for us." he reminded them. Right on cue the little astro-droid skidded with a whistling electronic screech out of a side passage to rebound off the opposite wall. "See. No problem."
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than scores of battle droids, super-battle droids and destroyer droids materialized out of the walls to surround them. Oops.
"Do you have a plan B?" Obi-Wan asked, voice dripping sarcasm.
"Hey, you're the general. I'm just a hero." Anakin muttered back.
Safely concealed in a side passage Qui-Gon and Dooku watched as their boys and the Chancellor were taken into custody and marched forward, then exchanged looks.
"This has not been a good day." Qui-Gon murmured.
"No." Dooku agreed softly. "It seems all our choices go awry. I sense the influence of the Dark side."
"So do I." his old Padawan agreed. "Still, we can only do what we must and trust in the Force."
Dooku looked at him and smiled. "As always."
And with that they left cover to flit silently after the captives and their mass of guards.