Sol was able to bow her head in thanks before turning to head back into the living space. Her lips restrained her smile as much as possible, but the pinch in her cheeks indicated it was as wide as can be. At the re-entrance into the living space of the penthouse, the elevator doors opened. A new Force signature entered the room and Sol turned to see Anakin in his dark attire. Captain Typho was in tow and Sol tried to pull back on her smile to avoid any questions from the youngest of the two.
'Quiet as a tomb all around,' Anakin stated to Obi-wan, who had stepped off the balcony and beside Sol. 'But I must confess that I don't like just waiting here for something to happen to the senator.'
'Not to worry. I have this programmed to see-'
Obi-wan paused as he pulled out a scanner that viewed Padme's bedroom. It would view the bedroom for any potential threats that they couldn't hear or sense behind the closed door, but Sol noticed that there was no sign of Padme. The view was taken up by an R2 droid, one that had been in Padme's company since her rule on Naboo.
'She covered that camera,' Anakin noted. 'I don't think she liked me watching her.'
'I wouldn't either,' Sol shrugged, and Anakin's gaze switched from the handheld device to her. The intense stare she already had grown accustomed to was piercing, but she didn't shrink away. She returned it, which made Anakin stand up straight with tight lips.
'What is she thinking?' Obi-wan shook his head with a sigh.
'Artoo is programmed to warn us if there's an intruder,' Anakin turned from Sol to speak to his Master.
'It's not an intruder I'm worried about,' Obi-wan said with his hand to his beard.
'There are many other ways to kill a senator,' Sol added.
'I know,' Anakin resisted a glare. 'But we also want to catch this assassin. Don't we, Master?'
'You're using her as bait?!'
'It was her idea,' Anakin said defensively with a shift of his eyes. 'No harm will come to her. I can sense everything going on in that room... trust me.'
'I don't want to question your senses, Skywalker, but is it not risky to underestimate a threat on the senator's life?' Sol chimed. Anakin looked from Padme's bedroom door to Sol, his eyebrows raised in feign surprise.
'I'm sorry, Sol, was I not clear? This was Padme's idea-'
'Senator Amidala's idea, you mean.'
'What does that matter?'
The temperature increased in the penthouse at the tension between the Padawans. With Obi-wan in the middle, Anakin and Sol stared at each other with hard eyes and curled lips. Sol felt her patience shorten and her insides bubble. The way Anakin talked back to people was impolite to say the least, but being on the receiving end was unbearable. She disliked Anakin from their spar at the temple, and she disliked him now for his need to argue and have the last word. She found him insufferable.
'Remind me why you're here, again?' Anakin decided to speak when he got no reply.
'Anakin-' Obi-wan warned but was cut off.
'I don't remember Master Yoda telling us that you would be on this mission,' Sol's hands shook in fury.
'Master Yoda told me directly to assist the senator, not that it's any of your concern,' Sol stepped around Obi-wan to be in front of Anakin, who couldn't bare to appear like he was cowering next to his Master. He stepped closer, the two now half a metre away from each other. Anakin seethed at the Jedi who he now despised and found that craning his neck down at her made him feel better.
'Is it not? Why didn't he take you to Alderaan, hm?'
'Anakin-'
Obi-wan was cut short once again, but not from a vocal interruption from his Padawan. Sol was ready to get personal, since Anakin wasn't afraid to do so, but she felt a dull ache through the Force. When dull aches hit through the Force, they were hard to ignore. They brought on headaches and took the energy out of any Jedi that felt it.
Sol, Anakin and Obi-wan whipped their attention to the senator's bedroom door. Without a word, the three leapt in the dull ache's direction and Sol, who was the closest, slammed her hand against the button that accessed the sliding door. At the commotion, Captain Typho and Dorme rushed after the Jedi that sensed what they couldn't.
From his heroic instincts, Anakin accelerated past Obi-wan and Sol with his lightsaber ignited. The whizz of electric blue sliced through the two entities that were the culprits of the burning ache through the Force. Anakin's knees made the mattress of Padme's bed creak and the senator shot up from her sleep, eyes wide and frightened from the lightsaber near her face. But the flaming slugs that left scorched marks on the wall to the left took everyone's attention, the senator included.
'What in the world...' Sol mumbled. The dull ache left her senses, and she realised that the slugs had been on Padme's bed, ready to strike with their poisonous venom. At the sight of the dead slugs, Sol's eyes travelled up to the window that were half shaded by thin blinds. With a jerk, something backed away from the penthouse window and went to whizz away to avoid detection.
Obi-wan broke into a sprint and leapt through the window. The glass shattered and the Jedi Master was gone, hanging onto the assassin droid that had nearly killed Senator Padme. The sound of speeders entered the bedroom and the wind from the city chilled the air, Sol feeling the rush of cold meet her bare arms.
'Stay here!' Anakin sheathed his lightsaber and scrambled off the bed. Sol took this as the direction to turn and head out the bedroom, passing Dorme and Captain Typho on the way. She heard the thundering of boots behind her as she ran through the living space to the elevator. She let the Force boost her speed and was in the elevator before Anakin had made it through the sofas and coffee table.
'If you close those doors, I swear-'
Sol resisted the urge to do exactly as Anakin said and waited for him to enter, before slamming the button to reach the rooftop of the building. Restrained pants escaped the Padawans and their shoulders rose and fell to catch their breath. As the elevator took them up, Anakin and Sol glanced at each other in slight awkwardness.
'I'm not like you, remember? This is a serious situation,' Sol mumbled as she bounced from foot to foot. Anakin let out a scoff and shook his head as an alternative to letting out a retort.
The doors dinged and Sol rushed out after Anakin. The rush of wind filled her ears and she wished she had brought her overrobe to cover the exposed skin of her arms.
Anakin's broad shoulders blocked Sol's sight of anything that stretched off the rooftop, but she was able to see the row of speeders parked next to each other. Rustling in her pocket of her brown trousers, Sol found the keys for her speeder and headed in the direction of her bright yellow ship. Anakin noticed her change of path and circled around to head into the driver's seat, making Sol pause as he jumped over the door.
'Hey!' she cried, glaring down at the boy in her seat.
'What? Give me the keys!' he threw his hands up in a shrug and snatched the keys from her hand.
'This is my speeder!' Sol stated.
'Then get in, will you?!'
With a huff, Sol leapt into the backseat and shifted to the passenger seat. She never thought she would be forced into the passenger seat of her own speeder, but she let it go due to the severity of the situation. Flinching at the way Anakin shoved her keys into the ignition and backed out of it's parking spot, Sol felt the air leave her throat as her head flew forward. The buzz of her speeder hummed as Anakin put it in drive and sped off the rooftop of Senator Amidala's apartment building.
'Please, be careful,' Sol's voice travelled through the city and met Anakin's ear. A smile grew on his face as he took them past buildings and avoided other speeders.
'What, you don't trust me?' he glanced at the woman next to him.
Sol pressed her lips together and Anakin took that as her answer. While Anakin navigated the speeder, Sol took to searching the skies for Obi-wan. She looked past the lights and movement that never ceased in the city. She had only caught a glimpse of what the assassin looked like outside the window of Padme's bedroom, so she focused on the light beige robe that Obi-wan always dawned.
'I see him!' she cried, making Anakin whip his head to her direction. 'Over there by the trade building!'
The speeder steered to the left and Sol's heart jumped into her throat. Beeps and toots from passing speeders echoed and the anxiety pumped through Sol's veins. Anakin's eractic driving was enough to put Master Plo Koon in a coma, and Sol in a fearful state. With jerks of the steering rods, they soared across lanes towards the droid that carried Obi-wan through mid-air.
'Would you slow down?!' Sol whined and clutched the door next to her for some stability.
'You want to catch Master Obi-wan, don't you?' Anakin fought with a roll of his eyes.
'Yes, but this is suic-'
Sol paused as the droid carrying Obi-wan suddenly obliterated. Without the droid's drive, Obi-wan free fell. Anakin didn't have to be told to go after him and Sol's heart was now on her tongue. The dive the speeder made was a close 90-degree angle and Anakin hoped the steering rods wouldn't give way from the heavy pressure they were under.
'Obi-wan!' Sol called out to the man who was parallel to them. He forced his head up and saw the bright yellow speeder containing the two Padawans. If he wasn't falling through the city, he would be scolding Anakin for his erratic driving.
'I'll try and catch him,' Anakin cried over the noise of wind rushing past their ears.
With some acceleration and a sudden up-pull, Anakin and Sol were underneath Obi-wan. The Master was able to manipulate the Force to cushion his fall, landing softly on the back of the speeder. He shifted into the backseat and instructed where he had seen someone shoot the droid he hung from. They must be the true assassin who didn't want to be linked to the murder of Senator Amidala.
'Sol, shift into the back so Master Obi-wan can sit there,' Anakin instructed without looking at her.
'Ah, excuse me?' she gave him a look of offence. 'This is my speeder!'
'Oh, please, if it wasn't yellow, it might as well have been Dorme's with this horsepower.'
'You don't seem to mind zooming it through the busiest city in the galaxy-'
'If you had driven, Obi-wan would have fallen to his death.'
'But I didn't, did I?' Obi-wan intervened with his head pushed between the bickering Padawans. 'I'm perfectly content being back here. No need to move. Just focus on going after that speeder-'
'Where are you going? He went that way!' Sol jabbed a finger to the tunnel that the assassin turned into. Anakin didn't look at the woman beside him and held his confidence as he drove.
'This is a short cut... I think?'