Thanks as always for all of the reviews, favorites, and follows. Sorry for the late update. I knew September was going to be an extra busy month, and I had hoped I could finish through Episode I before the craziness hit, but unfortunately I couldn't. Thanks for being patient. Part of this chapter was once again inspired by Anna Camp aka Obi-quiet's amazing time travel fic "Hindsight is Not Perfect."

Chapter 22: Annabeth Saves the Queen

I had to get up before the sun the next day because Percy's Underwater Taxi Service was the best way to sneak in 100 resistance fighters, a queen, and a couple of Jedi into a heavily guarded city, though Annabeth and Obi-Wan did drive the other two heyblibbers. Everyone got out of the subs in a secluded, wooded park along a branch of the Solleu River. I knew their next step was to retrieve a few tanks that Panaka had hidden in a warehouse on the opposite side of the city from the Naboo Security Force armory, just in case the main armory was compromised during an attack. I guess sometimes it really does pay to be extra paranoid.

I climbed out too, just so I could wish everyone good luck. I gave Obi-Wan a Roman handshake, the one that Jason had taught me on the Argo II. Instead of grabbing the other person's hand, you grabbed their forearm. According to Jason, it represented friendship and loyalty and all that good stuff. "If you get the pleasure of fighting old tattoo face, give him an extra kick for me. That guy owes me a few bruised ribs."

"Revenge is not the Jedi way, Percy," Obi-Wan said, but he was smiling.

"Oh fine then, just invite him for tea." I turned to Anakin next and ruffled his hair. "Be safe, Ani. Trust your gut, but remember sometimes the best thing you can do is to just wait and watch." I couldn't believe I had just said that. "Maybe, one day I'll actually remember to do that too."

He flung his small arms around me, "I will Percy. At least I'll do it better than you probably ever will," he laughed, but then his face scrunched up with worry, "Do you think you can really use your powers to do all of that?"

I glanced towards the rest of the group that was gathered around Panaka and Padmé for final instructions. I knew he was talking about my crazy idea, but only the Jedi, Anakin, and the Gungans knew about it since I was still trying to keep my abilities quiet. Although I wasn't completely sure myself, I told him, "I'll make it work. I mean it's not like it's blowing up a volcano or anything. That stunt almost killed me."

"You blew up a volcano?" Obi-Wan asked, stunned.

"It was an accident, and I sort of just made it start spewing fire and smoke again." I was still a little defensive about that. It wasn't like I meant to reactivate Mount St. Helens and dislocate half a million people. Qui-Gon looked amused, but when I caught his gaze, his eyes became serious. He gave me a solemn nod, and I returned it. I knew he was discretely reassuring me that he would watch out for my friends.

Panaka came over and clapped me on the back. "I'm not sure what crazy plan you and the Jedi devised, but please, Percy try to stay alive."

I nodded back, "I will. And thanks, Panaka, for everything."

Saying goodbye to Annabeth was the hardest. I kissed her trying to communicate how much I loved her through that act. Part of me wondered if I would ever be able to kiss her again. I told that part to shut up. "Come back to me, Seaweed Brain," she muttered as she slowly pulled away.

I pulled her close one more time and pressed my lips against her forehead whispering, "Always, Wise Girl."

I watched as they broke up into groups and headed to the main parts of the city. Then, I jumped back into a heyblibber. I had a lot to do before I could come back to Theed. I exchanged the heyblibber for the smaller, faster bongo at the closest Gungan city. I dropped my new sub off at a spot in the Solleu River close to where the battle would be. Hopefully, it would stay out of the destruction zone. I could just make out the Gungan army emerging from the swamp and knew I had to hurry. I dove back into the water and swam through the tunnel network under the plains until I reached a specific spot. Bessie Jr. joined me along the way. Apparently, she didn't like the droids messing up her hunting, and she really enjoyed smashing them. The droids' blasters couldn't get through her thick hide, but the tanks definitely could which was why they were going to be my first targets.

I took out the Jedi short range comm that Master Gallia had given me before she left for Coruscant last night. "Tidal Wave is in position." Despite what was coming, I still grinned at the cool code name I'd given myself. "What's going on up there?"

"We are at the correct coordinates," Kit said over the comm. "No sign of the droid army yet, and I do not sense the Sith Lord either." I kind of hoped that Darth Maul would be with the droid army because I wanted a rematch, and this time, I would be on my home court not some desert planet. As soon as I saw him, I planned to make him take a little swim. It would help that Kit could breathe underwater too, and the Jedi Knight had told me that most lightsabers didn't work underwater. Kit had to make a special adjustment to his so that it would work while submerged.

As I waited, I put my hand on the rocky ceiling of the tunnel and tried to feel how much water was already in the cracks and fissures above me. We had found a really good spot with help from data Daedalus 2.0 had pulled up. There was about two hundred feet of rock between me and the surface, and there already was a large fracture in the crust that luckily ran away from Theed in both directions. So, the city shouldn't be affected even if I lost control. All I had to do was push enough water through a spot and the facture should do the rest of the work for me. In a hundred years or so, this tunnel would probably have become another branch of the Solleu. I just had to speed up the process to under a minute. At least the water around me was a little salty, so I got more of an energy boost than I would from just freshwater, but it didn't feel as good as the oceans back home or the water closer to Naboo's core.

Kit's voice came through, "They are here. Still no Sith. Wait for my signal." So, I waited. It felt like an hour but was probably only a few minutes. Riptide was already in my hand, and I was sitting on Bessie Jr., right behind her neck. I'm pretty sure that I was the first person to ever ride a sando aqua monster. "The shields withstood the heavy fire from the tanks, but they are deploying the droids now," Kit finally said. "The Gungans are forming their shield wall at the shield boundary. It will not be long now." The shield wall had been Annabeth's idea. After running some calculations, she realized that the Gungans' bubble shield would be able to stop the tanks and blaster fire, but the droids were small enough and slow enough to pass through. As soon as the droids could use their blasters, the Gungans were at a huge disadvantage at long range combat, so the Gungans best chance was to force the droids to fight at a close range. She managed to convince Boss Nass that the Gungan army needed to form a phalanx directly behind the boarder of their bubble shield using the Gungans' personal energy shields to form the shield wall and electropoles as spears. That way the Gungans could stab the droids with an electropole right as the droids passed through the shield before they could even fire their blasters. Even if a droid did manage to fire at the Gungans, a well-positioned shield would just deflect the blast bolt right back at the droid.

My role was to wait until the first few droid lines got knocked out by the Gungans. Then, Bessie Jr. and I would push our way up, 100 yards in front of the Gungans' shield, splitting the droid army and hopefully whipping out the tanks.

"Now," Kit shouted.

I drove Riptide into the rock above me and pushed the water with all my will through the opening fissures. It felt kind of weird because usually I did this in reverse, plunging Riptide down into the rock and pulling water up. The cracks above expanded. Rocks started falling, but the water current kept them away from Bessie Jr. and me. The tunnel shook all around us. The water had reached 100 feet. I started feeling a strain in my gut, but I kept pushing, ten feet left, then five.

Finally, I broke through the surface. Huge chunks of earth flew everywhere smashing droids. Bessie Jr. roared as she pushed herself out of the hole along with a huge geyser of water. I screamed, and with a hard tug in my gut, water sprung out all along the fracture, widening it and splitting the earth. The ground rumbled and the droids toppled over. I raised my arms and a huge wave formed behind me. As I thrusted my hands forward, the wave rushed straight towards the fifteen tanks that were staggered about 50 yards away. Some were crushed by the force of the wave. Others toppled over, or the water shorted out their power. The wave retreated to the new opening I had made, dragging the last several rows of the droid army with it. I felt shaky and light-headed. Besides Mount St. Helens, I'd never used my power on such a large scale before. I told Bessie Jr. to dive back in the water for a moment just so I could recover some.

Kit's concerned voice came out of the comm. "Percy, are you injured? Where did you go?"

"Sheesh, give a guy a break. I just need a minute to catch my breath. I'm only half of a god, and I just cracked the freaking ground."

He chuckled, "Fair enough. As long as you did not strain yourself too much."

"I'll be okay," I replied. Before I returned to the water, I had felt really tired, but it was a mental sort of tired like when you want to take a nap after a long exam and your mind turned to mush tired. But, physically, I felt fine. The water was already giving me an adrenaline boost, so I didn't feel so sleepy. "Though if I don't want to pass out, I should probably avoid moving water anytime soon, but I can still fight," I added. I remembered what happened to Nico when he strained his powers shadow traveling across the world. My cousin literally was turning into shadows. I wondered what I would turn into if I strained my powers. A puddle? I tried to take my mind off that disturbing thought, "So how many did I take out? Is the shield still up?"

The sounds of blasters and Kit's lightsaber came through my comm for a few seconds before the Jedi responded, "The shield is still active. The fambaa riders were skilled enough to control their mounts when the ground started shaking. You managed to knock out about a quarter of the droids, and the Gungans dispatched about 200 more. However, there are three tanks left. They were the farthest from your entry point two on the left and one on the right."

"Okay, I'll go for the left ones first then get the last one on the right, so Bessie can do her stuff." Once the tanks were gone, Bessie would be our second front, so to speak, crushing the droids outside the Gungans' shield and diving back down before she could get overwhelmed.

"Very well, I'll cover your back," he stated.

When I was ready, Bessie leapt out of the water and crushed several droids with her arms before diving back in. The cannon fire from a tank just missed us. I jumped off of her neck as she crashed back into the water and landed with a roll. I started sprinting towards the tanks on the left. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kit do a Jedi flip over my new stream and follow behind me. His green lightsaber deflected any blasts that got too close. One of the tanks turned towards me and fired. At the last second, I dove to the right and kept running. When I got close enough to one, I leapt up and used the main cannon to swing onto the roof. I slashed through the canon with Riptide then drove the Celestial bronze blade through its center. The tank sparked and shuddered beneath me and then stopped moving altogether. I quickly leapt to the top of the other one that was several yards away just before the first one exploded. This time though the driver seemed ready for me. The hatch opened, but I cut the droid in half before it even got its blaster up.

Then, I got an idea. I jumped down the hatch left open by the droid. I landed in a tiny room with lots of buttons and joysticks and even a few peddles. I figure it couldn't be too hard. After all, I used to play video games. I sat in the chair and just started pressing things. I figured the big red trigger was probably to fire the canon, so I avoided it until I was ready. Turns out, the peddles moved the canon. I lined it up with the other tank across the field and pressed the trigger button three times. The other tank blew-up. Thank you video games! And, my mom said they were a waste of time.

"This is not protocol," said a mechanical voice below me. I just had time to duck as a droid fired its blaster. The next one I deflected off with Riptide. The bolt hit something, and a red light flashed while a warning buzzer went off.

"Guess it's time to go!" I pulled myself out of the hatch and jumped off the top of the tank. I didn't stick the landing and ended up eating dirt. But, I definitely should have scored a 10 for style because the tank exploded right behind me, again.

Kit helped me get to my feet with a huge grin on his face. Luckily, I hadn't hurt anything besides a few brush-burns from the grass. "Your talent for causing explosions is quite impressive!"

"I'm just naturally gifted," I grinned back.

All the explosions got the attention of the droids, and about 200 had turned around with their blasters pointing straight at us. Unfortunately, my crack hadn't made it this far so there was nothing between us and them. I probably should have thought this out a little better. Even with Kit's lightsaber, we didn't have a chance. Maybe if I had a shield, but Tyson hadn't been able to repair my watch before we left with all the camp reconstruction he had helped with. "Surrender now Jedi," said a droid commander.

"Any more explosions up your sleeves?" Kit muttered.

"Nope, but I've got a large friend who loves to smash things." I mentally shouted for Bessie, while doing my best New York taxi whistle. The sando aqua monster exploded out of the water and flattened a third of the droids around us. The rest started firing at her, but she just shook off the bolts like flies and crushed some more with a huge sando aqua monster smile on her face. After that, it was pretty easy for Kit and me to make it back to the Gungans' shield.

The shield wall technique seemed to be holding up well, but it definitely was not all sunshine and rainbows. A Gungan would get hit and fall, but another one quickly stepped up and took his place. I grabbed one of the shields from a fallen Gungan. Its long oval shape was more like the legion's shields than the circular ones I preferred, but I definitely needed it to deflect any stray blaster bolts. I joined the Gungan shield wall but moved whenever I saw a breach. At one point, I thought we were in trouble when a squadron of those rolly polly droids got through and spread out behind the shield wall. They had their own shields that even deflected Riptide which would have been pretty cool if they weren't trying to kill me. Kit was able to knock a few over with the Force, which weakened their shields enough that I could stab them with my sword. I managed to slice one while it was rolling, but the remaining three were super annoying. They had managed to surround us and kept firing from different directions, so Kit couldn't focus enough to Force push them.

Eventually, I got so tired of dodging blasts that I risked bringing some water from the new stream. The tug in my gut was so intense that I dropped to my knees. Luckily, Kit covered me with his lightsaber. I was only able to grab like three gallons, and I shoved them at the droids hoping they would short-out or something. Unfortunately, the water did not penetrate the shield. "Styx, that was my last idea." I dropped the water and scrambled to my feet, holding up my shield. As the droids advanced, I noticed that they stepped into the puddles from my failed attempt with the water. The water was now inside their shields! This was so going to suck, but I gritted my teeth and lifted the water from the ground. I sort of just directed it to any place that looked important and pushed the water. The droids wobbled and sparked, but most importantly their shields shut off. Kit sliced them pretty quickly with his lightsaber after that.

I was once again on the ground. My gut was so tight that I threw-up my breakfast. Kit helped me up and gave me his water flask to rinse out my mouth. "You pushed yourself too hard," Kit said.

"Did you have a better idea?" I grumbled.

"I am sure if you were more patient, the Force would have provided one that did not involve you getting sick."

Before I could argue back at such a Jedi answer in the middle of a battle, my comm wristband went off. "Percy, Darth Maul is here," Annabeth said. "Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan just broke away from the group to hopefully detain him."

Oh well, guess I wouldn't get my rematch, but it did mean that I could leave this battle a lot sooner now that I knew Darth Maul wouldn't just pop up and try to kill all of my Gungan buddies. I looked around, and the Gungan lines seemed to be holding now that the rolling droids were down. In fact, I would even say that there were more Gungans than droids. "Things are going pretty well here. I'll check with a general, but I'll probably be on my way soon."

"Okay, see you soon. But Percy, please be careful, especially once you get to the palace," Annabeth warned.

I found my friend Roos, and he confirmed that the Gungans had everything under control. "Goin to her," he said and gave me an appraising look, "favorite of Gobba." I wasn't really sure who Gobba was, but I had a feeling I wouldn't like it when I found out.

"I will go with you as well," Kit told me before I took off for the Solleu River where I left the bongo. "I sense that I am no longer needed here."

We were able to sneak out away from the fighting and make it to the sub. I quickly jumped in the driver's seat, and Kit took the seat next to me. As soon as the sub went under, I started to feel a little better. My body automatically relaxing as water surrounded me. Gulping down the water from my bottle helped a lot too. I was debating whether it was worth using an ambrosia square from my pack to speed my recovery, so I could use my powers again. Yes, I wanted to get to Annabeth faster, but I should probably save the godly food for deadly emergencies. I tentatively tried to will the current to push us but immediately doubled over, barely keeping my hands on the controls. Nope, that wasn't happening.

"Here, allow me," Kit said. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths like he was meditating. Then, the water responded, and a strong current increased our speed. It was strange since I could still sense the direction and speed of the water and use it to our advantage while driving, but I wasn't controlling it.

"Thanks! Can all Jedi do that?" I asked.

"I suppose they could since I am just using the Force to push the water, but I do not believe many of my comrades have tried since they are not underwater as much as I am," Kit responded, keeping his eyes closed. "But, please no more talking. I imagine I require a great deal more concentration to manipulate the currents than you do."

With Kit's help we made the normally 30-minute submarine ride down the Solleu in about 15 minutes. I parked the sub as close to the palace as I could get. It was in a small alcove right before a waterfall. I pressed a button on my wrist band and said, "Kit and I are just outside the palace."

It took a few seconds for Annabeth to respond. "There are too many droids, so when we get a chance, we are going to use ascension guns to reach the throne room level. If you could distract and get rid of more droids, that would help."

I grabbed my pack, hooked my blaster on my belt, and left the sub with Kit. I knew the blaster wouldn't have helped me much in the battle on the plains, but in the long corridors of the palace with a few groups of droids, it would definitely be nice.

"Any ideas?" I asked as we ran toward the palace.

"Enter the palace and attract as many droids as possible to hopefully clear the queen's path more," Kit responded.

I grinned, "Well, I've never had a problem attracting trouble."

We entered through the Palace Guard offices since I knew that entry code. I guess the Trade Federation was too lazy to change it. Sure enough, my trouble magnet worked, and 20 droids found us. But, between Kit with his lightsaber and me with a blaster and Riptide, they were down in less than a minute. We continued making our way towards the throne room, leaving a trail of broken droids behind us. We only had three floors left, when another seven rolly droids surrounded us.

"Great," I muttered as both Kit and I slid to a halt. The droids hadn't fired at us yet, but they didn't need to. We were stuck, and they knew it. "Any ideas? I'm all out."

"Not at the moment" Kit said. A squad of normal droids arrived, and the commander ordered us to surrender and hand over our weapons. I tried to reach for the plumbing, but the stabbing pain told me my powers hadn't recovered yet. Kit glanced at me with concern, "Just do as they ask for now. I sense we should wait. Hopefully, the others will have better luck."

This whole trusting in whatever Kit was sensing in the Force was weird, but I handed the commander droid Riptide and my blaster. Riptide would return to my pocket anyways which was pretty much the only advantage I had at this point. The droids marched us in the direction of the throne room. "Man, Annabeth's so going to kill me if these droids don't," I muttered. I knew us getting captured could turn this whole thing into a hostage situation which meant we could lose any advantage we managed to gain if Padmé had captured the viceroy.

As we walked through another long hallway, Annabeth's voice came from my wrist comm, "Please tell me you are not captured, Percy. That the viceroy is just bluffing to stall the negotiations for the new treaty."

I winced, "Can you help?"

"Well at the moment, I'm holding my sword to Nute Gunray's neck, so no, I can't." Styx, I was hoping she could invisibly take out the droids or something.

Riptide appeared back in my pocket. The droid holding the rest of our weapons clearly didn't notice. Guess the Trade Federation didn't make these droids very smart. If only there was a way to get rid of the shield droids. I mean I'd gone toe to toe with gods, Titans, and Giants, but I was captured by a few pieces of scrap metal all because I didn't know how to get past their shields. It also didn't help that I couldn't lift more than a swallow of water right now without keeling over. If Annabeth were here, she would know how to handle the shields. I gripped Riptide in my pocket. I had to do something.

I'm sure whatever I would have done would have been really stupid, but all the droids around us suddenly went limp, including the shield ones.

"The pilots must have managed to destroy the control ship," Kit said as he used the Force to summon his lightsaber back to him.

I quickly picked up my blaster. "Good timing for us."

I raised my wrist comm, "Hope you still have Nut guy at sword point, Wise Girl, because all the droids just went down." I sprinted the rest of the way and reached the throne room door in a few seconds. I tried opening it, but it must have been locked or something. "Can you let us in?"

The door opened, and one of Panaka's men was at the release controls. As I entered the room, I immediately found Annabeth who was pointing her Drakon bone sword right at the crown-hat, fly guy's unprotected chest, her Yankee's cap sticking out of her pocket. There were only a few downed droids in the room. Padmé, Panaka, and the rest of the Security Force were in a loose circle around the Trade Federation leaders holding blasters at them. Annabeth backed away slowly lowering her sword and stood by Padmé. She glanced up at me and flashed a smile. I grinned back. Annabeth was fine. We had survived another impossible battle, and it all would be over soon.

Of course, that's when everything went wrong. Kit tensed up next to me. I looked around but didn't see any danger that could have caused the Jedi's reaction. Suddenly, Annabeth threw herself at Padmé, and both tumbled to the floor just as some metallic blur flew over their heads. I looked up to find where the shot came from. A female figure with pink skin wearing some kind of tight white material and a green hood swung down on a cable right towards Annabeth and Padmé from the vaulted ceiling. As Annabeth rolled on top of Padmé to protect the queen, the assassin fired a small gun and something that wasn't the usual flash of a blaster bolt flew towards Annabeth who was just turning around to face her attacker. Annabeth faltered and slumped over the queen. I shouted and sprinted towards them, Riptide already in my hand somehow. The assassin landed on her feet and turned around to face her target again, raising the gun. Annabeth struggled to sit up and raise her blaster. Before the she could shoot again, the assassin flew back and hit the wall.

"Help them, Percy, I'll stop the bounty hunter," Kit shouted as he ignited his lightsaber from somewhere behind me, no doubt running toward the dazed assassin he had just Force pushed.

I skidded to a stop and collapsed to my knees by Annabeth who had managed to push herself into a sitting position off of Padmé. Panaka quickly helped the queen up, and the Security Force formed a perimeter around us, half their blasters pointed in the direction of the assassin half still on the Trade Federation leaders. I heard a crash of glass and a scream, but all my focus was on Annabeth. Everything else seemed far away and not important. Her hand was shaking badly, but she managed to pull something off of her neck. It dropped to the floor as her body started trembling even worse. It was a metal dart with Annabeth's blood at one end.

"Poison," Annabeth groaned.

Panicking, I ripped open my bag pulling out ambrosia squares and nectar. Annabeth's strength started to fade, and she leaned into me. I fed her the ambrosia. Her hands were shaking too badly. I tried to poor some nectar where the dart had been, but there was no real wound, just a pinprick. If only I paid more attention to first aid class at camp. In between bites of ambrosia, she whispered, "Percy, what do you think will happen to us if we die here?"

My eyes blurred, and I tasted salty water on my lips when I bit them, "No you don't Wise Girl, you are not going anywhere. Don't even think about it." She continued to eat the ambrosia. Only half a square left. Could I give her another one?

Kit sat next to me, carefully picked up the dart, and sniffed it. "Poison dart coated in Sennari," he stated.

I was about to ask what that meant, but the sorrow in his eyes told me enough. "There's an antidote, right?" I asked, desperately latching on to any hope.

"Unfortunately, the victim usually dies before it can take effect," he replied. "It is a miracle she is still alive as it is."

Annabeth finished the ambrosia. It might have been my imagination, but it felt like she was trembling less. "Percy, I love you," she whispered. "Please, promise me that you will keep living, no matter what happens. Please, keep being you. Stay. . . stay good." Her voice was faltering.

"No, Annabeth!" I was shaking worse than her now. "Please," I begged her, the gods, the Force, anything that would listen, "Please, keep fighting. Please, stay alive. I love you too much, Annabeth. She can't die, not after everything."

"Percy," I could hear some of the stubbornness in her voice returning despite how weak she sounded, "Promise me."

"Shh, save your strength, rest," I kissed her temple as I smoothed her hair back. "Keep fighting, and I'll promise."

Padmé suddenly appeared with some sort of futuristic injection gun and a clear vial of liquid. "This is an antidote for most known poisons."

She was about to load the antidote into the injector, but I stopped her. "Wait." I shifted Annabeth, so I could grab the flask of nectar again. "Give me the antidote."

I popped the cap off the vial and poured as much nectar as I could fit in the antidote vial. I figured Annabeth's best shot was if the godly liquid could be injected straight into her body. Hopefully, it would be enough nectar. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too much or interfere with the antidotes or any of the other things that could go terribly wrong. I gave the vial back, and Padmé loaded it into the injection gun. She pressed the end of the barrel at Annabeth's neck and pulled the trigger.

Annabeth collapsed against me, "No! What happened?" I frantically felt for her pulse. It was still there but faint.

"The injection includes a sedative to help the patient recover," Padmé responded calmly though she looked worried. "However, Knight Fisto is correct about this poison. To my limited knowledge, no one has survived." She looked at my desperate face, and her eyes softened. She squeezed my arm, "Don't give up hope though. Just the fact that she is still alive, and we were able to administer the antidote is a good sign that she will pull through." I just nodded and looked back down at Annabeth. At least she had stopped shaking. "Plus, I'm sure her Force-sensitivity will help," she glanced at Kit.

The Jedi nodded, "Yes, I believe her unique constitution may give her an advantage. Also, the medicine you gave her before the antidote seemed to boost her Force presence which will help her body remain strong. All you can do now is let her body and the antidote fight off the poison and trust in the Force."

Kit's somewhat optimistic response helped calm me down, and my brain slowly got out of panic mode. I glanced around the room. The Trade Federation leaders were still there looking scared and muttering quietly to each other. The rest of the handmaidens and Security Force had also joined us. Panaka stood right behind me and gave my shoulder a squeeze. Then, I saw the shattered window and realized the assassin, the person who had poisoned my girlfriend, was gone. I glanced at Kit, "Where is she?" My voice came out flat, emotionless, like the calm before the storm.

Kit grimaced, "She jumped out of the window before I could get to her. I am sorry, Percy." I nodded. Part of me wanted to blame Kit for letting the assassin escape, but I knew it wasn't his fault. I turned towards the Trade Federation leaders. No, it was their fault. All of this was their fault. I'm not sure what I would have done, but I was reaching for Annabeth's Drakon bone sword.

Kit grabbed my hand. "Let go," I snarled.

The Jedi tightened his grip, "Percy, I promise we will get to the bottom of this. We will find the bounty hunter and whoever hired her, but you cannot do this right now. You are too personally connected." I broke his grip, but before I could grab the sword, he said, "Remember what Annabeth said, what you promised."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I wanted to make those Trade Federation goons tell me who that bounty hunter was and why she went after Padmé and Annabeth, and I didn't particularly care what I did to get those answers. But, Annabeth wouldn't want me to do that. She wouldn't want me to lose myself. She would expect me to be better. "You should take Annabeth to the medical bay," Padmé suggested softly. "We can monitor her recovery there and give her any additional medicine that she might need."

I nodded, that made sense, and it would actually help her. I gently picked Annabeth up, cradling her in my arms, and Padmé personally lead me to the infirmary with Panaka trailing behind us. Several of those med droids greeted us as soon as we walked through the door. I placed Annabeth on one of the beds while Panaka explained what had happened to one of the droids. Padmé pulled me away, and the other droids closed the curtains around Annabeth's bed. All the anger that I had felt when I realized the bounty hunter had escaped was gone, replaced with numbness. After a few minutes, the droids pulled back the curtains again, and Annabeth was wearing a hospital gown with an IV in her arm and other sensors probably monitoring her heartbeat and stuff.

One of the droids looked at the information on a datapad and said, "The concentration of the poison in the patient's body is still fatal, but that number is dropping. The vitals are also steady."

"Thank you, Two One Bee," Panaka nodded to the droid. Panaka also commed his men and asked for them to locate the head doctor and send him to the palace infirmary.

I pulled up a chair and gently held Annabeth's hand, "Come on, Wise Girl, keep fighting."

Panaka and Padmé had to leave. "I'm sorry Percy, but I need to go," Padmé apologized. "She saved my life, and for that I will always be grateful."

I nodded, "It's okay. She would want you to go take care of the planet."

Padmé smiled softly, "She would want you to take care of yourself too, Percy."

"I'm fine," I muttered. Before he left, Panaka mentioned something about keeping guards by the door.

Eventually, a real live doctor showed up. He looked at the datapad with Annabeth's information and gasped. "How is this possible? With that poison and those amounts a human female should have died within a minute? Are you sure you just administered the standard antidote, young man?"

I forced my gaze away from Annabeth and looked at the doctor. In my dazed state, I struggle to come up with something to tell him besides that I gave my only half human girlfriend some godly food and injected some godly drink directly into her blood stream. "Umm, she's a pretty strong Force-sensitive. Would that make a difference?"

The doctor huffed, "I suppose so. I've heard Jedi have methods of healing themselves with the Force. Could she be doing that?" I just nodded and made a note to ask Obi-Wan about it whenever I saw him. "Well for the moment, all we can do is wait and hope that the poison concentration continues to decrease, and her vitals stay strong. As long as those two things continue to happen, I expect that she could make a full recovery." Somewhere inside of my numbed emotions a spark of hope flared. Maybe she would pull through.

I'm sure the doctor saw the relief in my eyes, as he focused his assessing gaze on me. "You look like you could do with some rest yourself, young man. Perhaps you could just take a nap in the bed next to her."

Despite the man's kind tone, I glared at him. I needed him to understand that I was not moving away from Annabeth's side. The doctor hastily stepped back, "Very well then, I'll be back in a few hours to check on her. The droids will alert me if anything changes."

I went back to just holding Annabeth's hand, but I snapped out of my vigil when Anakin rushed through the door and crushed me in a hug. "I'm so sorry about Annabeth. How is she doing?" Somehow, Anakin managed to get through my numb feeling just a little.

I quietly explained to him everything that had happened. When I got to the point about the rolly droids just collapsing, he grinned and said, "That was me." He quickly told me all about his first time actually flying and how he had destroyed the Droid Control Ship.

I whistled when he was done, "Wow, thanks Ani. If it wasn't for you, I might be dead, or the queen might have been forced to surrender, or Annabeth. . ." I glanced back at my sleeping girlfriend unable to finish that sentence of what might have happened if I wasn't able to get to her in time. "I guess it really was a good thing you pulled a Peter Johnson and snuck out of the Jedi Temple." Anakin fell asleep in my lap not to long after that. I picked him up and tucked him into the nearest bed before returning to Annabeth's side.

More people kept coming in: Kit, Panaka, handmaidens, and the doctor. They all checked on Annabeth, but then they tried to get me to go to sleep or eat and drink. I kept telling them I was fine. It became my automatic reply to everything. The visits blurred together. I stopped paying attention to everything except Annabeth and the datapad displaying her heartbeat and the amount of poison in her body.

Someone must have dropped off both Annabeth's and my bags. The doctor came back and decided to add more antidote to Annabeth's IV. Apparently, she needed a little more to get rid of all the poison, but since this was the first time a patient had survived long enough to actually use the antidote, the doctor was in uncharted territory. After he left, I debated on whether or not I should try giving her more nectar. It could help, but it could also cause her to spontaneously combust. I wasn't sure if injecting it made the godly drink more potent for demigods or not. I decided to only give her more if her vitals changed for the worse.

I'm not sure how long I sat there, but eventually, I heard Obi-Wan's voice say, "Percy?"

It sounded strained, but I still replied with the automatic, "I'm fine."

He sighed, "No, you are not." Before my tired brain could figure out what was happening, I felt something cold on my neck, and then I felt nothing.

Author's Note: There's one more chapter planned to wrap up Episode 1. I'll try to get it up in two weeks or so.