Anneke raced down the stairs, bouncing off walls and ducking around Padraig's pages, security, and hangerson. Hold on, Obi Wan—I'm coming! Bursting from the front door, she leapt into a speeder parked nearby, threw the ignition, and gunned it into the air. Reaching out with the Force, she found Obi Wan struggling to hang onto the probe droid he had caught outside Padraig's window, which was now trying its best to knock him off as they careened through the night.
Sensing Obi Wan's pain through the Force, Anneke grimaced in sympathy. His arms and shoulders were beginning to scream with the pain of holding his weight, and his fingers were losing feeling. She pushed the speeder to its limit, dodging traffic and buildings. Flying on Coruscant was very different from flying on Tattooine, but she had gotten used to it over the past five years, and it was exhilarating.
Opening up her senses, she could feel everything around her, so she knew exactly when to steer up, down, right, or left just in time to avoid the traffic. Pinpointing Obi Wan's location, she also sensed a malevolent presence that appeared to be the droid's destination. Calculating the exact time and place he would fall when his numb fingers finally let go, she was there just before he was, catching him neatly in the passenger seat.
"What took you so long?" Obi Wan asked as he caught his breath.
Raising an eyebrow, she steered toward the presence she had felt earlier. "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 of course it had to be the right colour…" She grinned as she spotted the assassin.
An unmistakably female figure aimed a blaster rifle at them from the rooftop directly ahead. Veering to the right, Anneke avoided the shot, then spun back toward the assassin. She couldn't wait to rub this in Padraig's face. The assassin was female just as she had suggested!
Obi Wan snorted. "If you spent as much time working on your saber skills as you do on your wit, young Padawan, you would rival Master Yoda as a swordsman."
The assassin leapt into her speeder and shot away, firing over her shoulder wildly with a blaster pistol. Anneke dodged left, laughing. "I thought I already did."
"Only in your mind, my young apprentice." Obi Wan's knuckles were white where he held onto the frame of the speeder.
"I'm sorry, Master," she said with not a trace of remorse. "I forgot you don't like flying."
"I don't mind flying—" His breath caught as they swerved to miss a commuter train, and his fingers convulsively tightened even more. "What you're doing is more like suicide!"
"Master," she said as if explaining to a child, "you know I've been flying since before I could walk. Relax. You're sweating."
"Just slow down!" He pointed to the right. "There! There he goes!"
He? She rolled her eyes, and followed the assassin's speeder into a tram tunnel.
"Don't go in there!" Obi Wan yelled.
Anneke braked. A tram was coming! She wheeled around and back out the way they had come, avoiding a crash by inches. "Remember what Master Yoda says about fear." Anneke grinned at the look on her master's face.
"I am not afraid," he replied breathlessly. "I simply have a strong sense of self-preservation."
"Don't worry, Master. I know what I'm doing." Anneke guided the speeder up and over the tunnel, spotting the assassin's vehicle entering a stream of traffic. Anneke gunned the engine, and dropped into the traffic right next to their quarry, who immediately turned and fired her pistol at Obi Wan.
He ducked just in time. "What are you doing?" he demanded.
"Sorry, Master." Anneke dropped the speeder below the assassin's line of sight, then came up underneath. The assassin promptly skimmed low overtop a building, forcing the Jedi to drop back.
"Watch out for those banners!" Obi Wan cried. A row of flags loomed up before them, and the speeder clipped one, ripping it from its moorings. It flapped against the right front airscoop, blocking the intake, and they began to slow.
"Clear that!" Anneke yelled. "We're losing power!"
Obi Wan gave her an incredulous look. "What?"
"Clear the flag! Hurry!" She struggled to pull every ounce of speed from the engines she could, watching the assassin slowly widen the gap between them.
Holding on with one hand, Obi Wan leaned out over the side but couldn't quite reach the flag. Gritting his teeth, he climbed out of the seat onto the hood, and pulled it free. Instantly, the speeder surged forward, throwing him flat. "Anneke! Don't do that!"
She allowed herself a snicker at his reaction. "So sorry, Master." She held the speeder steady until he was safely back in his seat, then shot up to the right over a building.
"Where are you going?" Obi Wan demanded. "He went that way." He pointed down to the left.
Anneke sighed. "Master, if we keep this chase going, that creep's going to end up deep-fried. Personally, I'd very much like to find out who she is and who she's working for." She shrugged. "This is a shortcut. I think."
He raised an eyebrow. "You think? What do you mean, you think?"
Anneke said nothing, focusing on the assassin's presence in the Force. As they cleared the roof, she came to a stop just above where their quarry would emerge.
Obi Wan folded his arms, surveying the traffic around them. "You lost him."
Calculating exactly when the assassin would emerge, Anneke replied absently, "I'm sorry, Master."
Shaking his head, he continued, "This is some shortcut. He went completely the other way—"
"Excuse me for a moment," Anneke interrupted. She vaulted over the side of the speeder, falling several stories to land on the assassin's speeder, right behind the enclosed cockpit. She fumbled for her lightsaber with one hand while holding on with the other. Activating the blade, she cut a hole in the glass canopy over the speeder's cockpit. The assassin turned and fired her blaster pistol and Anneke barely blocked it without losing her grip on the speeder. She did, however, lose her grip on her lightsaber, and it fell spinning into the night. "Ah, frack it," she muttered, and reached out with the Force to snatch the assassin's pistol from her hand before she could fire again. "Obi Wan is going to kill me."
The assassin grabbed for her pistol, and lost control of the speeder. It careened out of control, slipping into a nosedive. Anneke dropped the pistol, and it followed her lightsaber down into the depths. Grumbling under her breath, she tried to pull herself into the cockpit, but the assassin swung at her with one hand while trying to regain control of the speeder with the other. They started to level out, then the street came up to meet them.
The impact with the pavement sent Anneke flying.