Padme awoke to see Threepio standing over her.
"Mistress Padme," the droid said, "there seems to be someone at the door."
"Who is it?" Padme asked as she stood and pulled on her nightgown.
"I'm not entirely sure. He keeps asking for you, but I have been unable to recognize his face or voice."
Padme hurried to the door and activated the display panel. There, hunched outside her door, was a man she barely recognized as the Supreme Chancellor. Padme quickly opened the door to let her injured friend inside.
"Chancellor Palpatine," she said, helping him to his feet and inside, "what happened to you." She noticed that his left arm had been cut off by a lightsaber.
"The- the Jedi, they tried to kill me," he panted, out of breath. He seemed to be very frightened and exhausted.
"The Jedi?" Padme said. "That's impossible. Why-"
"Master Windu led a group to try and assassinate me. They want to take control of the Republic."
"No, they wouldn't!"
"...and Anaink Skywalker was with them."
Padme's eyes went wide with disbelief. Not Anakin, she thought. There had to be some mistake.
"To think, Anakin, my most trusted friend in the Jedi Order would turn on me," the hideously scarred Chancellor said. "The council must have been using him as a spy."
Padme couldn't speak.
"If it hadn't been for the clones, I don't think I would have escaped."
(-O-)
Anakin deflected the first few shots back into one of the clones, then dove backward into Sidious's office and behind the desk. Blaster bolts were ripping the furniture apart around him. Huddled under the Chancellor's desk, the Jedi tried to think of a way to escape. He could sense the clones moving into the office, keeping him pinned down with suppressive fire. They'd probably throw a grenade behind the desk to- Anakin knew his escape plan.
He activated his lightsaber and crouched, leaning forward toward the busted out window. He focused on the clones, their blaster shots, their movement, their equipment. Anakin sprang from behind the desk, reflected a shot into one of the clones' grenades, and shot out of the window just as the collective blast from the clone's ammunition reduced the Chancellor's office to rubble.
The Jedi fell toward the ground, heading into sky-traffic. He slowed his fall with the Force, and grabbed onto the side of an air-taxi. The speeder's alien driver expressed dismay in a language Anakin didn't understand as the Jedi hoisted himself into the passenger compartment. He ignored the driver's protests as he stretched out with his feelings, looking for the Dark Lord's presence in the Force. He found the Sith.
"Take me to the Senate residential center, now," Anakin said.
The alien squawked an acknowledgment and flipped on his fare meter.