Chapter 21: The Battle of Geonosis
Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker carefully landed the ship near some sort of factory. Despite their instructions to stay on the ship, R2-D2 and C-3PO followed the two into the droid factory.
Unfortunately, both Anakin and Padmé were captured by the Geonosians and sentenced to death. "We'll make it out of this," Anakin hissed. "We have to."
"For the twins," Padmé murmured softly.
Anakin discretely nodded.
Then he asked, "Angel, is everything alright?"
"I'm just not sure how to explain what happened to us to anyone," she replied.
"We'll only tell Obi-Wan now," Anakin replied. "And later we'll tell the rest of the founders of the Rebel Alliance. Which reminds me, sign me and Obi-Wan up once you get it started."
Padmé nodded and the two exchanged a gentle kiss as they were led into the arena.
Obi-Wan raised his eyebrows when he saw Padmé climb out of the carriage. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd gotten my message," He muttered.
"I retransmitted it, just as you requested Master," Anakin replied. "Then we decided to come and rescue you."
"Good job," Obi-Wan muttered sarcastically.
Anakin rolled his eyes. "Padmé, I think I liked crazy old Ben Kenobi better," Anakin muttered.
"Who is that?" Obi-Wan asked.
"The really old man version of you," Padmé replied.
"You liked me better when I was old?" Obi-Wan demanded.
"Yes, you were less sarcastic," Anakin replied.
Obi-Wan made a face at his Padawan. "I've got a bad feeling about this," Anakin muttered as three animals—a Reek, a Nexu, and an Acklay charged into the arena.
"Padmé, would you rather be destroyed by those animals or jump down the garbage disposal of the Death Star again?" Anakin asked.
"Garbage disposal," Padmé replied. "But it would smell terrible."
"What are you two yammering about?" Obi-Wan demanded.
"We'll explain everything after this," Padmé promised.
Obi-Wan nodded, reluctantly.
Anakin grinned when he and Padmé noticed the large army of Jedi that had come to rescue them.
They were able to hold many of the droids, but at a high cost—most of the Jedi would die.
Master Yoda arrived with the first group of clones and the surviving Jedi and Senator Amidala were retrieved.
Knowing machinery as well as he did, Anakin wisely ordered for the pilot to aim for the fuel cells, resulting in the destruction of a large amount of droids.
"Good call, Padawan," Obi-Wan grinned.
Padmé fell out of the gunship when it was shot by two escort droids. "Padmé!" Anakin yelled.
Obi-Wan grabbed Anakin's arm. "What would Padmé do if she were in your position?" Obi-Wan asked.
"She would do her duty," Anakin replied. "But I'm not ready to face Dooku! Neither of us are! We need backup!"
"Anakin, we can take Dooku," Obi-Wan insisted.
Anakin nodded, locking his jaw.
The two Jedi, unfortunately lost the fight to Dooku, who also sliced off Anakin's right arm.
After exchanging a quick kiss with Padmé, who had run into the hangar, Anakin growled. "He got away with them," he muttered.
Padmé's eyes widened in horror and she shook her head in disbelief. First, she had allowed Palpatine to become Chancellor and now she had failed to stop Dooku from escaping with the plans that resulted in the destruction of her daughter's homeworld? This was an all-around disaster.
"Dooku got away with what?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Come with us, we'll go to Naboo, and explain everything on the way there," Padmé replied.
Obi-Wan nodded and the group boarded the Naboo cruiser, where R2-D2 and C-3PO were now waiting.