Before Sol could rejoin the battle, Anakin overcame Count Dooku. Sol noticed the similarities in Anakin's attacks to the few times they had dueled each other. With a focus on the wrists, just like how he ended their dual in the first Jedi Temple on Ahch-To, Anakin was able to lock Count Dooku's hands under his own arms. With a twist, Anakin sliced off the Count's hands in one swipt movement.
Count Dooku's wrists were nubs of exposed flesh with the smell strong enough to waft over to where Sol stood next to the window. It was a stench that a Jedi was used to as lightsaber wounds burned and seared at organic flesh. Sol watched with her hand on the railing behind her as the Sith fell to his knees, and Anakin took hold of the red lightsaber that flew out of Dooku's hands.
The white-haired man trembled as the events took a drastic turn. Fear overcame his dark eyes that stared up at Anakin, who crossed his blue lightsaber over Dooku's red one at the nape of the Sith's neck. A stuttering lip pleaded, and Sol looked at Anakin's face, knowing that their mission wasn't to kill Dooku. But in the case that they couldn't take him back to Coruscant for a trial, the Count would need to be eliminated. However, it wasn't the Jedi way to execute those who needed to face a jury and a court, and Sol didn't see why they couldn't put Count Dooku in bindings and take him back to the Jedi Council. This was not a dire situation.
'Good, Anakin, good!' Chancellor Palpatine cheered with a hearty chuckle. 'I knew you could do it!'
Sol cringed at the sound of the Chancellor's laugh. He had barely wiped the smile off his face since she was thrown out of the fight, and now that her vision had cleared, she saw how vibrant the man looked while bound to his chair. Never had a hostage looked so happy, and Sol couldn't stand to see it. While Anakin's shoulders heaved, and his glare seared through the Count, Sol pushed off the rail and made her way over to the commotion.
'Kill him. Kill him, now.'
Sol froze and Count Dooku's fearful gaze shot over to the Chancellor. The grin on the Palpatine's face was sly and Sol felt the familiar crawling feeling underneath her skin at the sight of it. He didn't even glance her way, nor in Count Dooku's direction, who seemed to exhibit an even more crippling fear. His gaze was solely on Anakin, who at first looked hesitant at the command.
'I shouldn't...'
Sol couldn't believe her ears. From beside the man who held the lightsabers at Dooku's neck, she looked at Anakin from the corner of her eye. She thought she would see shock, much like on her own face, at the Chancellor's demand. But the slight hesitation was withering away and Anakin looked as if he wanted to kill Count Dooku right here. Sol felt his desires in the Force, and his deep hatred for the Sith Lord was enough for Sol to want to look anywhere but at Anakin.
'Do it!'
Sol didn't know what to do, and she was scared at what might happen if she interfered. Anakin's hands gripped the lightsaber handles with such strength that Sol feared that if she reminded him that she was there, he would turn on her. She recognised the blaring red that ate away at his vibrant Force signature, as it was the same that she frequently saw in small flickers when he grew angry or felt threatened.
As Sol's hand raised and call for her own lightsaber, Anakin pulled his arms outwards to cut his blades through Count Dooku's neck. Sol took wary steps backwards as the head tumbled along the floor. She had seen severed limbs and heads before, but the fact that Anakin was at its core was what made Sol so uneasy. From behind him, Sol saw that Anakin's squared shoulders relaxed, as if in relief and pleasure at the killing of Count Dooku. It pained her to see a Jedi so delighted to kill, and it worried her that it had been Anakin's actions.
'I couldn't stop myself...' Anakin said, his senses seeming to have cleared. With a few blinks, Anakin dropped the red lightsaber he dared to hold and glanced beside him, noticing for the first time that Sol was nearby. He hadn't even sense her presence while he had been staring down at the man who he hated for so much. Dooku had threatened the lives of everyone Anakin held dear, and had taken his arm when he was just a Padawan. Anakin wanted him dead, and nothing else mattered in that moment.
'You did well, Anakin,' the Chancellor's voice slithered into the room again. 'He was too dangerous to be kept alive.'
Sol didn't want to be near the Chancellor any longer, so she headed over to Obi-wan with heavy steps. She tried to ignore the sound of the Chancellor's bounds being unwrapped and she bent down beside the Jedi Master. He was unconscious, but not badly hurt. All Sol needed to do was lift the fallen balcony slightly and slide Obi-wan out from underneath. But when the sound of explosions rattled the ship, Sol figured that they were short on time.
'Yes, but he was an unarmed prisoner,' Sol heard Anakin defend. But no matter what he said, she could still feel the lingering flames of the darkness that surrounded Anakin when he killed the Sith Lord. She didn't even want to look over her shoulder at him, so she busied herself with Obi-wan.
'I shouldn't have done that, Chancellor. It's not the Jedi way,' Sol pointed her fingers towards the fallen balcony, and it began to tremble with the Force.
'It is only natural. He cut off your arm, and you wanted revenge,' the Chancellor was heard. 'It wasn't the first time, Anakin. Remember when you told me about your mother and the Sand People? Now, we must leave before more security droids arrive.'
With that, the cruiser rattled with more explosions. The Galactic Republic were attacking the command ship and the shields that Sol had deactivated no longer protected it. It wouldn't be long before the ship would fall apart, and the Jedi did not want to be on it when it did.
Sol was able to pull Obi-wan's limp figure out from underneath the balcony as it hovered in the air. At the drop of her hand, the balcony fell with a clatter, and she turned Obi-wan onto his back. She went to pull one of his arms over her shoulders but was stopped when Anakin dropped down to be beside her. She tried not to jump at his closeness and kept her stare on Obi-wan, finding comfort in his rising and falling chest and the warm colour in his skin.
'Anakin, there is no time,' the awful sound of the Chancellor's voice spoke up again. 'We must get off the ship before it's too late!'
'He seems to be all right. No broken bones, breathing's all right.'
'Leave him! Or we'll never make it.'
Sol turned to look at the Chancellor for the first time in a while. She didn't expect much more from the man who egged on Anakin to murder Count Dooku, but the lack of concern in Chancellor Palpatine was disturbing. She hoped that her eyes were like daggers that pierced through his skull, as the very suggestion at leaving Obi-wan behind outraged her. With a grit of her teeth, Sol looked away from the Chancellor and went to gather Obi-wan onto her shoulders.
'He's leaving with us, Chancellor,' she said aloud. 'You're welcome to carry on ahead, but Obi-wan's fate will be the same as ours.'
Anakin grabbed hold of Obi-wan from Sol's hands and lifted him over his shoulders. With his Master's arms and head hanging limp on one side, Anakin stood up and adjusted his grip at the added weight. He looked down beside him as Sol got to her feet and called her abandoned lightsaber into her palm. He watched her glare one last time at an impatient Palpatine before she met his eye, and he saw the way her purple irises quivered at his stare.
'Are you okay?' he asked, having forgotten to check on her after her collision with the railing.
Sol didn't know what to say, so she lowered her head in a stiff nod. Usually, she would send him a smile to relieve his nerves, or would subtly touch his hand with hers, but her lips were pursed in a tight line, and her hands stayed with herself. Anakin wanted to explain his previous actions, but Sol walked ahead before he could. He adjusted Obi-wan before following, noticing that Sol had emptied Obi-wan's pockets and held the commlink to R2 in her hand.
---
It wasn't long until the Trade Federation cruiser had lost its stabilising jets from the Republic's attack. The Jedi and Chancellor attempted to take the elevator, but it had been disabled at the disconnection from the ship's controls. The cruiser tilted from the loss of its stabilising jets and it was easier to hop into the elevator shaft, and walk down it as if it were a horizontal corridor.
But with the unstable ship in gravityless space, the cruiser began to tilt back to its original position. As the cockpit worked to get the cruiser back in place, the rescue party began to loose their footing. Sol gripped the commlink while Anakin held Obi-wan, and the two fell onto their backs with the Chancellor and slid down the elevator shaft.
Yelps and cries escaped the Chancellor, while the Jedi remained quiet to concentrate on their next move. Sol saw that the shaft appeared to be a bottomless pit, and that they would fall hundreds of floors before eventually meeting their flat and very solid end. With her hair flying in her face, Sol angled herself to face the wall that had become their slide and reached to grip something. Her hand zipped over flat panels and she noticed that Anakin had done the same, angling himself to reach for something to stop their fall.
Much to their joy, a control box came into reach and Anakin and Sol's hands simultaneously gripped at its wires. Their fall was pulled to a stop and the Chancellor was able to grip Sol's boot at the last second. She tried not to be sick at the very touch of the man's hands on her leg, but focused her attention on the wires she clenched with both hands. She could feel that they weren't stable, and it wouldn't be long until they broke, and their fall would continue.
As Anakin rushed to think of their next move, the body over his shoulders began to move. Obi-wan's hanging head suddenly jerked as he woke up and he let out a cry, pulling himself up to hold onto Anakin's middle instead of sliding off of his shoulders. The man's panic nearly shook Anakin's grip free from the wires, but with the freeing of his left hand, Anakin could grip onto the control box to hold the two of them up.
'Easy, we're in a bit of a situation,' Anakin let out through some grunts.
'Did I miss something?' Obi-wan said uneasily as he looked around the elevator shaft, before his gaze settled on Sol.
'You missed a whole lot, Obi,' Sol replied in some seriousness. Obi-wan saw the look in her eyes as she dangled next to them, before glancing down at the Chancellor who desperately held onto Sol's leg. There was a small noise of beeping, making Sol bring her hand down to her face that held the commlink. She had forgotten that it had been in her hand and the sound of some familiar beeps and boops drew her attention back to it.
'Artoo! We're in the elevator shaft-'
'Hold on,' Anakin cut Sol's transmission through the commlink off. An echo of a sound made the group pause, before the dreaded scrapping of metal made them look up to see the impending elevator.
'Oh, dear,' Obi-wan said weakly. The elevator was descending at high speed, and it would reach them in seven seconds if it didn't stop in its pursuit.
'Artoo!' Sol cried into the commlink in panic. 'Artoo, shut down the elevator!'
'Too late!' Obi-wan said and looked down. 'Jump!'
Sol and Anakin let go of the wired control box and the four continued their descent down the shaft. They gained speed ahead of the elevator, but they had to exit the shaft to avoid its inevitable crash.
As they fell, Sol sensed that Anakin and Obi-wan, as the duo thought very alike, had both pulled out their grabbling hooks from their utility belts. Sol had an idea of what they were planning, and she couldn't wait to rid herself of the Chancellor, who still had a hold of her leg as they fell.
'Artoo, open all elevator openings! Open all of them!' Sol yelled into the commlink over the sound of the rushing elevator above them. She prayed that the droid had heard her transmission and the two Jedi above her dispatched their grappling hooks.
The Trade Federation ship had begun to tilt again, and the rescue party's fall started to turn horizontal. With a brief dance along the shaft wall, Anakin and Obi-wan's grappling hooks finally caught and it would be mere seconds before the wires would straighten. Sol quickly grabbed onto Obi-wan and the four were flung through the closest elevator opening that R2 had thankfully opened. The Chancellor and the Jedi made it onto the floor as their grappling hooks detached. They took a moment of rest as the sound of elevator roared by, and they were out of the deathtrap at last.
'No more shortcuts,' Sol said through her pants. Her racing heart and dropped stomach made the woman feel out of breath, and she sat up from the floor of the corridor to eye the man who had told them to go in the shaft in the first place.
'We'll deal with the droids we run into. At least they can be killed,' she continued, brushing herself off and wiping at her glistening brow. Anakin looked at Sol as he too panted and shamelessly stood up for his droid once more.
'Artoo could have killed the elevator, he was just a little slow,' Anakin defended as he got to his feet. Sol and Obi-wan scoffed, while the Chancellor was left to gather himself through dramatic gasps.
'Perhaps it's time for a loose wire joke?' Obi-wan suggested and Sol resisted a laugh.