Padmé held on as best she could, her troop carrier flying slower and in the middle of the clustered formation to protect it's prized passenger.
A team were suited up in armour, all slightly different with the hand drawn embellishments that marked their individuality.
"I go first," Captain Rex stood by her side, repeating the plan one more time. "Boyle is right behind you. Echo and Dogma flank either side. The rest of the squad fan out around us to lock down any threat. At the first sign of shooting –"
"I am getting out of the line of fire," Padmé finished for him.
"Affirmative," Captain Rex nodded once.
The transport swayed and she did too. Both Captain Rex and Echo immediately reached out a free hand to steady her shoulder.
"We'll need to travel up twenty levels in the turbolift and walk two kilometres within the open corridors to get to Naboo's pod," Padmé spelt out.
"I don't like it," Dogma piped up from nearby. "We're too exposed for too long."
"It's the only way," she turned to him, unable to see his eyes but knowing who had spoken.
"Can you walk that far? You're very pregnant, if you don't mind my saying," he quickly hurried to take any sting out of his words.
Still, she could feel the entire squad's eyes turning to her. She had changed from the comfortable outfit she picked up on Tatooine, to a custom design she'd had Threepio make up from the available stores on the ship. The uniform was originally that of a bridge officer in the Grand Republic Army, modified to fit her very round form. Polished black army boots that stretched to her knees. Tightly tailored black pants. A crisp grey tunic that hit mid thigh with long, sharp sleeves. Her hair formed into tight braids then pinned back from her face.
She couldn't get into trooper armour with her belly as big it was now. But this uniform she could wear, and in this uniform, she looked like she never had before. Dark, powerful, militaristic. Very clearly a leader of the hundreds of thousands of men she represented. With a fleet of their warships under her command. She was diplomacy's greatest advocate, but Anakin was right. Unlike Satine, she knew when it was time to stop talking, pull out a blaster and fire.
In this, she looked strangely sharp. Leader of the army faction who brought death yet obviously carrying new life. And she was powerful.
"Yes I can walk that far," she answered Dogma's question. "The more people that see me, with you, the better."
"Why?" Echo wanted to know.
"Four minutes!" the pilot called over the com. This time, Padmé had an earpiece and could keep up with the chatter. That meant she had four minutes in which to educate her team.
"Palpatine has spent years carefully manoeuvring himself into a position where he appears to want peace, but is also fierce enough to destroy all the bad things in the galaxy. He looks strong, yet compassionate. It's a very delicate balance. He's now painted me as an idealist gone crazy. In the image he paints I am only good at talking, so like a child who didn't get their way I have had a tantrum and turned to terrorism to achieve my goals. Something outside of normal society."
The ship rocked again and this time she held firm on her own.
"The people need to see me as strong, and they need to see your splinter faction of the army as compassionate. They need to trust us, want us to help remove the Emperor. If they see us walking confidently through the corridors as if we belong, as if we're not afraid, it will be the first step to that. Actions that will then be reinforced by words."
Those standing nearby nodded in understanding.
"Once we make it to the pod, everyone boards. I don't want pot shots taken at her while she's out floating in the middle and we're waiting back at the dock. Got it?"
"Yes sir," came the firm reply.
"But kneel," Rex quantified. "Look up for danger. Let the Senators keep a clear eye on her. Focusing on us will not help the main goal. Got it?"
"Yes sir," they repeated,
"Coming up on the Rotunda," the pilot announced.
They all braced, swooping in to a fast landing. The doors slid back and Captain Rex's men piled out under a firm "Go go go!" order.
Padmé didn't need special instructions. Captain Rex in front, Boyle behind, Echo and Dogma either side just like they'd planned. She needed help down from the transport. As soon as her feet touched the ground she took off at a stride. Setting the pace herself and letting her men match it, rather than the other way around.
This was a carefully choreographed exercise in public relations, as much as a military exercise.
She spared a glance to her left to see the Duchess unloading with her own team from another transport. They shared a single nod, then Padmé made her way inside. Firm steps striking a brisk rhythm against the marble floor.
She heard the gasps and whispers from staffers not attending the currently called session as they left the landing bays and made it into the Rotunda. She ignored them, striding confidently forward along the path she knew very well, not letting herself be deterred.
She was no terrorist, she was a leader and her team of bodyguards outnumbered even the Emperor's personal guard. Made her appear more valuable than the Emperor.
"Time," she demanded of Captain Rex, needing to know how long they had until the appointed moment when Bail would hijack the current debate and take the floor, ready for her to interrupt the session.
"Nine minutes and counting milady," came the crisp reply.
"Very good Captain," she didn't turn to look at him. Just kept walking. Noticed a holocam fly up alongside and start following them, definitely broadcasting to the outside world. She didn't even look at it, didn't let an ounce of her pleasure show.
It was working.
Getting away wasn't so easy. A squadron of vulture droids zeroed in on him and started firing, one clipping his right stabiliser. Glancing over at he frowned and asked "R2? Can you lock that down?"
R2 burbled a question and Anakin didn't have to look at the screen to understand it. "Yes I suppose we should."
Instead of racing straight for the planet he stalled, flipped about and began firing. In quick succession three of his pursers were obliterated and two more overshot him. He then fired his engines up and streaked after them. A torpedo fired at one, two shots at the other and both were gone.
"Alright R2, lets find Obi-Wan."
Fighters streaked past him in the opposite direction as he breached the atmosphere and headed straight for the Senate but none fired on him. All heading for the droid invasion force, none thinking to be concerned with what appeared to be one of their own.
"Diplomatic hammer has landed," came the broadcast announcement. "No casualties."
Padmé's mission code name. She'd made it to the Senate building.
"Let's hope Organa came through and managed to convene a session," only R2 heard him but the droid whistled affirmatively.
"Obi-Wan?" he asked into his headset.
"The Emperor is on lockdown in his office while the Senate building is being invaded," the last word was said with mirth. "Shall I meet you at the landing bay?"
"Two minutes," Anakin gave his arrival time.
They flashed through spacelanes, darting through the few bits of traffic undeterred by the battle occurring overhead. In two minutes he was slamming up into the Senate building's landing bays, R2 popping out with him. Nary a Senate guard to be seen.
He looked around suspiciously as he jogged up to meet Obi-Wan.
"No greeting party? I thought we were minimising casualties," he assumed they'd all been dealt with.
"Cody had his men set their blasters to stun," Obi-Wan assured. "The guards are being dragged into their locker room and sealed in. Out of the way but unharmed."
They swiftly made their way into the rotunda and immediately began making for the turbolifts.
"The Chancellor?" he continued the briefing.
"Awaiting us in his office." Obi-Wan was clipped and informative.
"Padmé?" he asked with a softer reverence.
"Bail Organa has the floor and is stalling as we speak. Anakin," Obi-Wan grabbed his arm and pulled him to a halt. "Are you ready for this?"
"A Sith Lord? Didn't I take out Dooku?"
"Palpatine," Obi-Wan corrected. "He's your friend. This won't be like Dooku, you're never had to face someone you've known, trusted."
Anakin's face hardened, displeased as he pointed out "he attempted to destroy all Jedi, including you and me." He tugged free of Obi-Wan's grasp and started walking determinedly again. "Then he put a death sentence on Padmé's head. I'm ready."
"We take him together," Obi-Wan instructed as they stepped into the turbolift and R2 followed.
"If you can stay conscious long enough," Anakin teased as it began rising.
"I'll do my best," Obi-Wan played along.
"You ready R2?" Anakin checked as the lift stopped and the three of them got out on the topmost floor, heading straight for the Chancellor's office. R2 whistled affirmatively.
When they reached the doors they didn't hesitate. Anakin waved them open and strode calmly from the antechamber into the Emperor's office. The old man turned around, looking no different than he had mere days ago when the two had sat together at the opera.
"An-a-kin," he greeted warmly. "It's so good to see you alive my friend."
Obi-Wan strode in behind him.
"And, Obi-Wan Kenobi," his voice turned sour. "There is a bounty on your head, for the war crimes you've committed."
Both Anakin and Obi-Wan shrugged out of their cloaks, brown fabric falling to the floor in discarded pools. Anakin went left, Obi-Wan went right.
"Enough, Emperor Palpatine," Obi-Wan ordered. "In the name of the Jedi order and the Republic of combined star systems I place you under arrest."
"For what?" the Emperor taunted calmly. "Freeing the people from the hopelessly ineffective bureaucracy? Something they have already thanked me for, I assure you. Trying to help people is not a crime."
"Being a Sith is," Anakin countered.
Palpatine's head titled. "I'm surprised at you Anakin. You, of all the Jedi, were always more willing to change and adapt. You know their dogma has never sat well with you."
"You are the Sith Lord," Anakin said it firmly. "You created this war to feed your own power. Millions of lives have been lost, billions have suffered –"
"And new beginnings have arisen as well," Palpatine countered. "To be a Sith is to be powerful. You can even – stop people you care about from dying."
The blonde Jedi's head tilted in surprise at the very specific reference. The way the Emperor was looking at him so pointedly. "You know of my dream," he realised.
Obi-Wan's lightsaber lit. The first time he'd ever beat Anakin to the coming fight.
"About Senator Amidala's death in her coming childbirth? Yes, a tragedy it will be. But the power of the Sith can prevent that future. Join me, and together –"
Anakin's green lightsaber sprung forth before the vile thought could be finished.
"I am a Jedi, Sworn to protect the Republic. And you, Chancellor Palpatine, are under arrest for practising the dark powers of the Sith."
"So be it," the evil creature hissed. A red lightsaber ignited.
"Good luck," Satine entreated Padmé, her own platoon having caught up.
They nodded to one another in conviction, then Satine strode away surrounded by Commander Cody and his retinue of guardsmen to take up the Mandalorian Senate pod.
Her husband's ex-Padawan appeared as if from nowhere, slinking up by her side.
"All clear," she gestured to the doorway, having landed with an earlier team and already checked it for explosives.
Padmé took a deep breath and accompanied by Captain Rex and Ahsoka, strode into her own pod as, right on schedule, Bail Organa was finishing his speech. "I therefore think we must hear from a voice of reason in this debate. A tireless advocate for peace, someone who has experienced the destruction this Empire is already causing firsthand. I call on Senator Amidala of Naboo to address this assembly."
Gasps of surprise at the audacity of the Alderaanian Viceroy were only softened by the cries of shock when Padmé Amidala, Senator with a bounty on her head, an Imperial death sentence and a rumoured breakaway sect of the army under her control, suddenly appeared in the previously empty Naboo pod.
Looking like an army admiral.
At the touch of a button she was shooting out into the middle of the chamber.
"Friends, fellow Senators," she began. "We have all been betrayed."
Right on schedule a giant holo image filled the space. She sent a silent thank you to R2 as the figures now battling in the Chancellor's office appeared for everyone to see.
"Chancellor Palpatine," she deliberately used his previous title. "Is a Sith Lord. He has betrayed us all. He established both the Republic and Separatist armies, has controlled them both all this time, to make this body lose confidence in our ability to govern. He has destroyed the Jedi not because they have betrayed us, but because they were our peacekeepers. Our protectors. He wanted us to live in fear, to look to him for the solutions he always seemed to provide us. Now he seeks to destroy the heroes who have saved us all. He battles with Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. And Anakin Skywalker."
The chamber watched in quiet horror as three lightsabers clashed. Palpatine seeming to take the advantage by throwing Obi-Wan against a wall with a blast of energy from his hand.
Padmé's horrified eyes darted to the Mandalorian pod where the Duchess's hand flew to her mouth.
No, Palpatine definitely was not a kind old politician.
"You don't need him Anakin," Palpatine continued to flatter. "You were the most powerful of them all. That is why I wanted you with me, as my apprentice," he made the dark offer.
"I'm too old to be an apprentice," Anakin said with all seriousness, raising his weapon and darting for the Chancellor's side only to be rebuffed. "And I was never a very good one anyway. Just ask Obi-Wan."
Forced back with a series of powerful, full on blows from the glowing red Sith blade.
"You still have much to learn," the Sith cackled. "So much I can teach you boy."
"My child nears," Anakin refused. "It's time for me to grow up, to teach, not learn."
The Sith came at him again and this time he fought the old man back, and for a moment managed to take the upper hand.
"Even now the Jedi have gathered what remnants of the army they could. Those that remained loyal, they are above us battling to protect Coruscant from the Separatist army Palpatine built but can no longer control. He has left us all vulnerable!"
She turned to Captain Rex and gestured. "I speak on behalf of the clone troopers who have stood for freedom, who remained loyal to the Republic even as Chancellor Palpatine tried to destroy it. They risked their lives to protect us."
The battling figures paused and she saw Anakin tossed back against a wall with a strong thrust of the force. Her heart seized and she begged her eyes to close but it would not happen. She dreaded the sight as she saw a maniacally grinning Palpatine stalk towards her husband. His lit lightsaber in his hand.
From out of nowhere Obi-Wan revived and his sword crossed the path.
She said a silent prayer of relief, swallowed and forced herself to keep talking. For the battle of lightsabers was not the only one that required winning.
"Naboo," she said with wavering emotion. "Is a peaceful world. We don't want an armed Imperial garrison of troops. We want to spend our resources funding schools, and hospitals, our artists and craftspeople. Not feeding and arming an Imperial Legion."
Her head turned directly to the cluster of corporate pods and her eyes narrowed accusingly.
"This Senate has stood for a millennia to represent the people. In the last two decades, under our watch, corporate interests have managed to weasel their way in and promote their own interests over those of the Republic citizens we represent. Corporate interests favoured by the Chancellor."
From memory she recited the list.
"The banking clan. The techno union. The trade federation. The Kamino cloners. While friends, peaceful systems, have left their pods empty. I did draft the petition calling for the removal of Chancellor Palpatine's emergency powers," she freely admitted. "But now I see I did not go far enough. I therefore put forward a motion to remove Palpatine's position from this government. To reinstate the Jedi as our peacekeepers. And to immediately expel all corporations from this august body. If you do not represent a system, a planet, or a people, then you. Do not. Belong."
The clashing of lightsabers, the heroes of the Republic battling the architect of its downfall, provided a grand back drop to her words. But she knew she had their attention. Because the room erupted with passionate fire, both for and against.
"Mandalore will second that motion," Satine's royal voice over-rode the querulous burbling in a clear, resounding echo that caused even more uproar. "And the two thousand neutral star systems will return to the Republic, once Palpatine's corrupt reign comes to an end!"
Padmé touched a button to turn off her microphone and turned to her companions. "Our work here is done," she informed them.
"Ahhh, unfortunately we're not," Ahsoka gestured to where the Senate guard had somehow freed themselves and were now massing, waiting to capture them when they returned to the docking port for Naboo's pod.
"Hmmm," Rex mused, looking around.
They all saw it, the Clone troopers beginning to mass at every pod's docking space.
"They're not ours, are they?" Padmé asked worriedly as she saw blasters raising to aim for her.
"No, duck!" Ahsoka cried as a volley of blaster fire came their way.
A rain of it.
"What do we do?" Padmé cried out as they all cowered inside the pod. "And what about the Duchess?"
Ahsoka dared to peak upwards, towards the Mandalorian pod, then ducked back down.
"Don't worry, she's ok, they're not aiming for her. I think Cody and his men are blending in, standing guard."
"Well at least we don't have to worry about that," Padmé began looking around frantically.
"But we do have to worry about us," came Rex's synthesised voice.
"All the side exits are blocked," Ahsoka assessed. "And down seems to be asking for trouble."
"Every exit from the bottom of the chamber has to come up into the Senate before you can get out," Padmé confirmed.
"Which means we're just as trapped if we try to escape through the pits. That only leaves," all their eyes raised to the ceiling as Ahsoka deduced "up."
Padmé drew back her sleeve to reveal a hidden com. She touched a button, their pod moving through the holoimage of Anakin's left arm as he fought for his life.
The baby kicked hard and she put her hand to soothe the little one. Her com flashed twice then connected and an image of Admiral Yularen perched on her hand.
"Lady Skywalker," he greeted briskly.
"Admiral we're trapped in the Senate rotunda and need to escape through the roof. Could you send a troop transport to assist?"
Yularen started.
"We would need to blow a hole in the roof and send troopers in via tow cable. Transports don't have enough fire power to do that, and no protection should someone choose to attack."
"Well we need to get out of here," Padmé was sounding worried as the pod rocked dangerously and Ahsoka closed her eyes.
"We just lost lift," she said quietly. "I'll have to hold it."
Padmé saw her concentrating, knew she was using the force to hold them steady. Having seen Anakin perform similar feats, she knew Ahsoka wouldn't be able to hold it for long.
"Admiral," Padmé urged.
"Oh I have served with General Skywalker far too long," Yularen muttered. "Yes alright, we're coming. Find cover. When that roof blows there will be significant debris."
The comlink cut off and Padmé chanced a glance upwards through the unending fire of laser bolts. A cacophony of noise filled the chamber as unarmed senators, confined to their pods, were panicking.
"Ahsoka, can you get us closer to the Duchess?" Padmé implored.
"I. Think, so," Ahsoka's words were stilted and she lifted her hands. Slowly, the pod began to rise to Mandalore's position.
"Padmé!" came Satine's falsely calm greeting as they approached. "So nice to see you."
"Satine," Padmé ducked as a rocket missed their pod by inches and exploded into the empty pod where her friend Mina Bonteri had once stood, long empty of her calming presence since her world had defected to the Separatists.
"My fiancé and your husband do not look to be doing well," Satine stressed and they both looked out to the blue-tinged holo figures, swords no more than flashes of light.
"Neither are we," Padmé reached to her thigh and withdrew the blaster Anakin had earlier secured there. "Yularen will evacuate us through the roof."
Satine's eyes raised upwards, grimaced, then nodded sternly.
"Tell Commander Cody to be ready, we'll need to move quickly."
The blonde woman turned to confer with her commander and he quickly relayed orders to his troops.
Rex's headset, plugged into the Saviour communications, was the one to issue a loud order of "Take cover!" just a moment before a gaping hole blew out the roof of the Senate rotunda.
Pieces of steel, dust and duracrete sprayed everywhere, plummeting hundreds of metres to slam into the chamber's floor with deafening thuds.
Padmé looked up as the dust began to clear.
"Is that –?" Ahsoka was aghast at the sight the newly blown hold revealed.
"The Saviour," Padmé was just as stunned as they all looked up to see just a tiny fraction of the massive cruiser perched mere metres above the Senate rotunda's roof.
Clone troopers equipped with jetpacks began jumping from the open hanger bay doors, down through the blown hole and into the riotous chaos that was the Senate chamber. Their rifles were unholstered but no one fired.
Three landed in her pod, armed with a backpack full of ascension cables. She glanced over to see three more landing in Satine's pod and similarly arming her men. The Duchess took one of the long guns, made aim directly for the ship's inner hull and fired. Within seconds she was rising quickly away from the chaos as her cable retracted her into the safety of the Saviour. A platoon of Commander Cody's men rapidly following.
"Senator," Ahsoka began warily, watching as Padmé hesitantly took the gun Rex handed her.
All around her Rex's men began their escape.
Padmé touched her stomach, her very heavy stomach, and then reassessed their only means of escape. Ascension cables were fine when you were fit, had muscle tone and upper body strength like she had for most of her life. Right now she was front heavy, her back muscles were weak and she didn't know if her arms could support the weight of herself and the baby.
A volley of fire took out one of the troopers with a jet pack and he fell to his death.
She quickly shook her head at Ahsoka, and determinedly stood, aiming for the patch of the Saviour's inner hull she could see through the hole torn open in the ceiling. "There is no other way."
She shot out her ascension cable. Held on tight to protect her unborn child for this brief time. Hit the retraction button and flew up through Anakin's stumbling holo figure and into the safety of the ship's hull.
Only to land in the hanger bay, detach her cable, and bend over in utter agony as the muscles in her back contracted hard.
"Padmé?!" Satine came rushing to her side.
Padmé looked up in horror as her friends surrounded her, first Ahsoka then Captain Rex. "I think the baby's coming."
The ship's hanger bay doors started to close and the might of the Saviour began rising, fleeing the scene of the disintegrating Senate and returning to aid in the space battle above with the Separatists.
"Give up my boy, you can't win," the Sith Lord offered Anakin as they again broke away.
Anakin pouring with sweat, the Sith Lord barely looking taxed.
"Never," he hissed.
Obi-Wan was approaching silently from behind their enemy but Palpatine sensed it and turned, lightning shooting from his fingertips. Obi-Wan caught it with his blade. They were at a stalemate. Until Anakin regained his breath and rushed from the other side.
Hours had passed. Actual hours. Four of them. Padmé had been taken to the MedCentre to be greeted with the news that there was a fleet of med droids, two medical lieutenants, and no birth specialist. The lieutenants had only ever treated wounds and diseases that effected their male human crew of clones. The droids only contained basic birthing programming. So now they were frantically searching databases but were of little help as the contractions she was experiencing came closer together.
She wasn't mad, just worried. Even more worried that the broadcast of Anakin and Obi-Wan's fight with the Chancellor continued and was not progressing. Each second watching it was agony, to know he was still alive but very soon might not be.
Captain Rex and Commander Cody were watching the fight from the briefing room. Neither of them were specialists in space battles and had little assistance to offer as the Saviour was fending off an attack from a Separatist frigate while at the same time trying to obliterate a dreadnought class destroyer.
"This is going nowhere," Cody noted with frustration, hating standing back with nothing to do. "We have to help them."
"You know," Captain Rex watched as Anakin took yet another bolt of lightning and this time managed to catch it into a glowing ball of energy in his bare left hand. "It was clones who massacred the Jedi in the temple, by overwhelming them with sheer numbers." He looked up from the holo to look Cody directly in the eye. "Clones who are sworn to protect the Republic. I didn't plan this entire mission to rescue Skywalker so he could die a week later."
Commander Cody didn't take long to catch on. "How many do you think we'd need?"
"As many as can fit in that office."
They both turned back to the holo, assessed and then said in unison "100."
"Two platoons," Rex specified.
"Both our teams. Two waves," Cody agreed.
"I'll brief the Senator."
"I'll brief Yularen."
"Rendezvous in the hanger bay in five minutes," Rex nodded with decision and they parted at a run.
Captain Rex entered the medical bay to the sound of the Senator's harsh breathing and a low moan of pain.
"Err, Lady Skywalker," he interrupted, then glanced away in embarrassment.
"What?!" Padmé demanded.
"We have a plan to assist the General," he offered tentatively.
She grit her teeth, said nothing and he saw her turning a deep shade of red as she struggled to breathe.
"How can you," she finally gasped out. "Help them defeat a Sith Lord?"
"Blasters, milady," he said succinctly. "Lots and lots of blasters. Cody and I are leading two teams, we'll storm the office and fire until that Seppie is dead."
Padmé's back arched and she cried out in a long, drawn out scream.
"Do it!" she spat at the end of it. "I was not. Supposed to. Be in labour. On a military vessel. Over Coruscant!"
Rex nodded, turned on his heel and hurried to get out of the med bay. Ahsoka sent him a panicked look as she asked pleadingly "do you need any help Captain?"
"No no," he hurriedly assured. "Just clones. You – you stay here and protect Lady Skywalker."
"Rex!" Padmé called just as he was about to escape. He turned his head to catch her last instruction. "Keep him safe."
"Yes milady," he nodded once, sharp and true, then dashed for the hanger bay.
Four laden troop transports blasted through the hanger shields and down towards the planet. A squadron of fighters formed up alongside, shooting off the Separatists vulture droids that arrowed for them. All four transports made it into the atmosphere and screamed across Coruscant heading directly for the Senate building.
"A line of charges, blow out the windows," Boyle's advice came through all their headsets.
"Agreed," Rex affirmed.
"Transport alpha, do a fly by, throw self adhesive charges and keep moving. Detonate once you're at a safe distance and come around for a second pass," Cody ordered to his lead team.
"Shadow Stalkers, move in directly after the debris has settled," Rex picked up. "New Hope, we're at their six."
"Swing in, get Skywalker and Kenobi to the floor and start firing," Cody planned. "Fire until your power cell is depleted then drop to the floor and let the next wave take over."
"Fire until he's dead," Rex affirmed the final order as they swept into sight.
Smoke could be seen still billowing from the main roof of the rotunda. Flashes of lightsabers visible through the transparisteel once they got in close to the Chancellor's office.
"Nooo!" Anakin called at their destination as Obi-Wan fell, unconscious after the Chancellor managed to collapse a tall statue and it fell without warning, hitting his master's head.
Anakin's saber deactivated and he reached out, eyes closing as he concentrated with everything he had to capture the heavy statue and keep it from completely crushing his master's body.
"If you won't join me," Chancellor Palpatine calmly stepped over his destroyed desk towards Anakin's prone body. "Then you will be destroyed."
Anakin jerked as lightning struck him once more, but this time he was too focused on Obi-Wan. He used everything he had to throw the falling statue away from his master's body. But he himself stumbled, arcing in agony as the electricity travelled through him. He was utterly exhausted, had nothing left to fight with.
"And now, young Skywalker. You will die," Palpatine got in one last shot as he approached him.
At that moment the windows blew out.
The Chancellor was momentarily stunned. Anakin took a step back and his knee clipped the back of the lounge.
"Drop General!" came the filtered voice of a clone.
The force prompted it as well. Exhausted, he dropped.
And a rain of laser fire began.
The Chancellor's outraged "WHAT?!" was drowned out as ten laser bolts simultaneously drilled into his body. Then one hundred. Then one thousand. Anakin raised his head to see a line of clone troopers had jet packed in through the window, were crouched and firing at the Sith lord who had been caught off guard. Then a second wave jet packed in, stood behind their comrades at full height and joined in.
More appeared by their sides.
Palpatine caught the first few on his lightsaber and hurled the bolts back, absorbed by the protective clone armour. But no force user, Jedi or Sith, could survive that level of fire power. They shot and shot and shot.
No one could say who landed the first one, whose blaster bolt slipped through. But the second got through quicker. Then a third. The Chancellor's frustrated cry at being tagged affected his defensive lightsaber form. Soon a fourth bolt took him. Then one got him in the gut. Another in the face. His lightsaber dropped and deactivated.
The clone army he had created, armed with weapons he'd misappropriated from the Republic, trained with evil he'd devised, but taught by the courage of their rebellious young Jedi leader, filled his poisoned body with destructive laser energy.
The Jedi to whom they had all pledged their loyalty, who had inspired ordinary human soldiers to turn on their evil leader and fight for the good of the Republic, collapsed unconscious onto the floor.