A Geonosian, its wings flapping, pushed Padraig into an open cart, roughly tying his hands to the short wall near the front. He craned his neck to see two more of them dragging an unresisting Anneke in beside him. She moved like a droid, expressionless, her eyes distant.
"I'm sorry," he said.
She turned her head slowly, as if coming out of a trance. Her eyes focused on his face. "For what?"
"It's my fault we're here—I insisted that we come." They should have let the Council take care of this.
As if she read his mind, she replied, "The Council isn't here yet. If we hadn't come, Master Obi Wan would still be here, sentenced to die." She shook her head. "I'm the one who's sorry. It's my job to protect you… and I failed."
"I'm not afraid to die." He smiled, a little shakily. "Anneke, there's something you should know—something I have to tell you."
Her intense, beautiful eyes searched his. "What is it?"
He took a breath, let it out slowly. "I love you."
She blinked. "You… I…"
He wanted to reach out, to touch her, but his hands were bound securely. "Before we die, I wanted you to know."
Her eyes filled with tears. "Padraig, I have loved you since that night on your ship when you gave me your jacket to ward off the chill, when you spoke to me, not as to a slave, but as to an equal, as to a friend."
He took a shaky breath. "Anni…"
She leaned toward him and he met her halfway. They were just able to touch their lips together. He closed his eyes, tears threatening to escape. Why had he waited so long to tell her?
The roar of the crowd assaulted Anneke's ears; for a moment, she was back on Tatooine at the podraces. But while the races would sometimes end in injury or death for some of the participants, the spectacle here was designed to end in death for all of them. She sensed Obi Wan's presence growing nearer as they entered the arena, then she could see him, chained to a pillar in the centre. The red stone column was one of four standing in a row, the chains on the others clinking against the stone in the hot, dry wind.
The Geonosians pulled Anneke and Padraig from the cart and chained them each to a post. Obi Wan watched, his eyes squinted against the blazing sun. "I was beginning to wonder if you had gotten my message," he said calmly.
Anneke shrugged. "We retransmitted it as you requested, Master. Then we decided to come and rescue you." Her voice was as calm as his, belying her fear.
Obi Wan shook his head and laughed. "Good job!"
An amplified voice boomed over the arena: "The felons before you have been convicted of espionage against the Sovereign System of Geonosis. Their sentence of death is to be carried out in this public arena."
Another roar went up from the crowd of winged spectators. Anneke turned to Obi Wan. "I've got a bad feeling about this," she said with a crooked grin.
He rolled his eyes.
The amplified voice soared over the arena again: "Let the executions begin!"
With a screeching of unoiled machinery, three gates in the walls opened, releasing three creatures from nightmare. Catching sight of the captives, they bore down on them, roaring and shrieking.
"Take the one on the right," Obi Wan said. "I've got the one on the left."
"What about—" Anneke turned toward Padraig, and broke off. He had gotten out of the cuffs already and was using the chain to climb the pillar. What did they teach politicians on Naboo, anyway?
She was still staring at Padraig, when she sensed imminent danger. She leapt into the air just as the largest of the creatures reached her. It hit the pillar where she had been standing, its heavy horns clanging against the stone. Twisting in midair, she landed lightly astride its shoulders and wrapped her chain around its horns. It backed away, shaking its head, and the chain tore free of the pillar. Turning much tighter than such a large, heavy beast should be able to, it bucked. And bucked again.
Anneke held on with everything she had as her mount ran in twisting patterns around the arena, doing its best to throw her off. Reaching out with the Force, she sent calming waves at it, and it began to slow. She pushed a desire to help her into the beast's mind and, to her delight, it responded. With her touch and her mind, she turned it around and headed back toward the pillars.
Obi Wan was battling a huge, armoured, buglike creature on the other side of the arena while Padraig stood precariously on top of a pillar, using his chain like a whip against a sleek, furred beast that leapt again and again, snapping rows of serrated teeth.
Anneke guided her mount alongside Padraig's pillar. "Jump!" she called.
He leapt, landing behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. She resisted the temptation to lean back into his chest, urging her mount onward. The furred beast gave chase, but Anneke ignored it. Obi Wan looked to be winning his fight, but how long would the Trade Federation and the Geonosians stand for that? She rode up next to her master, and he vaulted on behind Padraig.
The rolling rumble of destroyer droids echoed through the arena. Anneke turned her mount to face them, but they fanned out in a circle, uncurling and pointing their weapons at the Jedi. They were surrounded. Anneke lifted one hand from the beast's neck and covered one of Padraig's hands where it rested on her stomach, lacing her fingers through his.
Something tickled at her senses, and she lifted her head. She had been so focused on the battle, on protecting Padraig, and helping Obi Wan, she had missed the approach of hundreds of powerful Force signatures. Padraig gasped in her ear as lightsabers ignited all through the stands around them.
The clanking and screeching of the gates opening drew her eyes back to the walls. Waves of battle droids poured into the arena. Several Jedi leapt from the stands to engage them; two of them tossing lightsabers to Obi Wan and Anneke as they passed.
Spooked by the blaster bolts flying all around, the beast shook off Anneke's influence and threw the three of them unceremoniously into the dust, then charged around the arena, trampling droids and Jedi indiscriminately.
Anneke picked herself up and stood back to back with Obi Wan, blocking blaster bolts. Padraig snatched up a pistol from a fallen Geonosian and made the third point of a triangle with them, firing unerringly into the fray, hitting a droid with every shot. Anneke made a mental note to ask Padraig where a Naboo politician learned marksmanship—not to mention lockpicking.
"Aggressive negotiations?" Padraig shouted over his shoulder, and Anneke burst out laughing. Obi Wan raised an eyebrow at them, and Anneke just shook her head, grinning.
Padraig had lost count of how many times today he had thought he was about to die. Each time, he had been given reason to hope again, but now it looked very grim. He stood shoulder to shoulder with Anneke, Obi Wan, and Mace Windu, with about twenty Jedi, in the centre of the arena. They were surrounded by hundreds—or maybe thousands—of battle droids. The sand was littered with the dead or injured bodies of Geonosians and Jedi, scattered among broken droids.
For some reason, the remaining droids had stopped firing, and were merely holding their blasters on the defenders. Then Count Dooku's voice came through the hot, dry air from a balcony in the stands, "Master Windu! You have fought gallantly. Worthy of recognition in the history archives of the Jedi Order. Now it is finished. Surrender—" He paused dramatically. "—and your lives will be spared."
Padraig glanced to his right where Master Windu stood, his lightsaber casting a purplish glow over his dark skin. "We will not be hostages for you to barter with, Dooku," Mace declared.
The Count dipped his head. "Then, I'm sorry, old friend." He raised a hand, and the droids stepped forward.
A hand slipped into Padraig's, and he turned to meet Anneke's eyes. He could think of nothing to say.
Anneke's head whipped around just before the roar of several large engines reached Padraig's ears. Six huge gunships soared over the stadium walls, and came down into the arena around the survivors, hundreds of armoured soldiers leaping to the sand as soon as they were low enough.
"Circle the Jedi," a familiar voice ordered from the nearest ship. Padraig was stunned and delighted to see Master Yoda at the open door, waving the troopers on.
Mace Windu waved his arm toward the ships. "To the ships!" he cried. "Everyone onboard!"
Padraig, still hand-in-hand with Anneke, ran for the ships with her at his side. Against all odds, they had survived, and were still together. He allowed himself to hope once again.