CHANCELLOR Palpatine had been taken hostage by Count Dooku and his new apprentice, General Grievous. Elia, Anakin, and Obi-Wan were all on that very mission to rescue him to the dismay of the council and strict orders.
"Master, General Grievous's ship is directly ahead-the one crawling with vulture droids." Anakin's voice echoed into both Obi-Wan's and Elia's headsets.
"Oh, I see it. This is going to be easy." The Kenobi Jedi replied back in sarcasm, Elia rolled her eyes.
"Look, here they come now." Elia told the two other Jedi. The vulture droids taking flight. The Squadron lined up in formation behind Obi-Wan, who was leading the form. Anakin and Elia flew along the outsides. "Redtail, time to fall in." Elia announced over her headset.
"Copy that, General." A clone replied back to her. The squadron of clones forming behind the trio of Jedi.
"This is where the fun begins." Anakin chuckled into his headset, smirking. Elia could practically see the overconfident smirk on his face.
"That's my line." The Stormborn Jedi shook her head, Anakin leveled with her window and locked eyes with her.
"Let them pass between us." Obi-Wan instructed. The Clones struggled now, dropping like flies, the droids were attacking from behind.
"I'm gonna go help them out." Elia announced, preparing to peel away from the formation.
"No. No, they are doing their job so we can do ours." Obi-Wan stopped her, she met his eyes through the window of her ship. He shook his head. One of the vulture droids dropped missiles from above.
"Missiles, pull up." Elia told everyone, pulling her ship upwards. Anakin copied her, pulling up right next to her, putting him in the middle now.
"They overshot us!" Obi-Wan exclaimed, but Elia saw Anakin look back briefly.
"They're coming back around." Anakin said aloud. Elia made brief eye contact with her husband before he spilt from the form to get rid of the missiles. Elia went the opposite direction, so that she could face Anakin's ship head on. At the same time, the duo would pull down sharply and the missiles would hit each other. It was a classic Elia-Anakin move.
"We got'em, Stormborn." Anakin saluted to Elia as they pulled back into formation.
"Flying is for droids." Elia heard Obi-Wan mutter into his head set, the blonde woman laughed. Anakin smiled upon hearing her laugh. "How could you be laughing right now?" Obi-Wan scolded Elia.
"Laughing? I wasn't laughing." Elia sputtered out, choking back on even more laughter.
"I've been hit!" Obi-Wan cried out.
"I see them, Buzz droids." Anakin replied, moving in on Kenobi's ship. His droid unit had just been torn in half.
"They're shutting down all the controls!" Obi-Wan told them, flipping switches in the ship to fight the droids off.
"Move to the right so I can get a clear shot at them." Anakin told his Master.
"Hold your fire! This is not the solution, Anakin." Obi-Wan was practically shouting into his head set.
"You're right. Bad idea." Anakin stopped firing at the buzz droids."
"The mission. Get to the command ship. Get the Chancellor. I'm running out of tricks." Obi-Wan replied. Elia accelerated so that she was flying just above Obi-Wan's ship.
"To hell with the mission." Elia said to Obi-Wan, rubbing the wing of her ship against his, a few droids falling away. Anakin did the same.
"Stop that! You're going to get us all killed, finish the mission." Obi-Wan scolded the two Jedi Knights.
"We're not leaving you, Master." Anakin said defiantly, flying closely to his masters ship. He attempted to get a few more droids off, succeeding.
"Grievous's ship is dead ahead." Elia pointed out, the mothership sitting right in front of them.
"Have you noticed the shields are still up?" Obi-Wan retorted at the Stormborn woman, who sighed.
"Isn't it you who said 'one problem at a time'?" Elia remarked. She sped her ship up and started to fire at the emergency doors, killing the shield. The doors began to shut quickly.
"Oh, I have a bad feeling about this." Obi-Wan muttered as they flew straight for the closing doors. The trio of Jedi ejected from their seats as their ships crashed, preparing to fight the droids waiting for them.
"R2, locate the Chancellor." Anakin ordered the droid, going back to back with Obi-Wan and Elia. They deflected all the shots fired right back at the droids, an easy win.
"The signal is coming from right there- the observation platform at the top of that spire." Obi-Wan pointed to R2's hologram map of the ship.
"I sense Count Dooku." Anakin said aloud, his jaw clenching and then unclenching.
"I sense a trap." Elia added, looking around.
"Next move?" Anakin asked his wife, Obi-Wan's eyes slid from Skywalker to Stormborn.
"Spring the trap." She shrugged, gesturing to Obi-Wan to move forward with the mission. "Stay here R2, wait for orders." Elia said to the droid with a wink. They moved from the main hangar bay to a hall, in hopes of getting into an elevator.
"Destroyers." Anakin pointed out, just as the droids rolled down the hall. It reminded Elia of Ahsoka calling them "rolling death balls". The three Jedi deflected the blasts until the doors to the elevator opened, then backed in slowly.
"Drop your weapons." A droid spoke from behind them. Elia turned around to see at least eight of the droids in the elevator with them. "Rodger, Rodger." They spoke stupidly in unison. Together, Anakin and Elia wiped them out easily. The droids laid in a pile on the floor.
"Close call." Obi-Wan said aloud, letting out a deep breath.
"Too easy, you mean. Those droids have no brains and no aim." Elia remarked, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder. It had gotten much longer in the last three years, she had it tied back in a long braid now. The elevator stalled and froze, it shook violently.
"Did you press the stop button?" Obi-Wan asked Anakin, who was closest to the buttons.
"No. Did you?" Anakin asked back, frowning in confusion. Obi-Wan shook his head, both men turned to look at Elia.
"You're both smarter than this, the elevator stalled." Elia rolled her eyes. "There's other ways to get out of here." She ignited her saber and began drawing a hole in the ceiling.
"We want to get moving. R2, activate elevator 31174." Obi-Wan replied, trying to get ahold of the droid. He kept asking for the droid but was getting no reply. The hole from the ceiling fell in and Elia jumped out, followed by Anakin. Obi-Wan looked up at them in disappointment. "Children." He muttered.
Suddenly the elevator began to move again, but down. Anakin and Elia had to jump onto a nearby ledge to avoid falling to their death. As they hung on the ledge, the door opened up.
"Hands up, Jedi." The droids told them, pointing their blasters. A loud clanking noise echoed and the elevator began to move up quickly. The married couple pushed off the wall, to land on the top of the elevator. Anakin and Elia jumped back through the hole, Obi-Wan ignited his saber and gasped in surprise.
"Oh, it's you." Obi-Wan put his lightsaber away, Elia let out a soft laugh.
"What was that all about?" Anakin asked his master.
"Well, R2 had been-" Kenobi started, stuttering over his words.
"Hey, no loose wire jokes." Anakin warned Obi-Wan.
"Did I say anything?" He raised an eyebrow at his former padawan.
"He's trying." Elia added in, just purely for fun.
"I didn't say anything!" Obi-Wan told them, not enjoying his mission partners ganging up on him. They exited the elevator onto the observing deck. Chancellor Palpatine waited tied down to a chair. He was the only person in the room. No droids, no guards.
"Leaving the Chancellor unguarded... Something isn't right." Elia felt a chill go down her spine.
"I agree." The Kenobi man muttered back to her.
"Chancellor, are you alright?" Anakin asked, as Obi-Wan bowed his head. Elia stood with her arms crossed over her chest, ignoring the pulling feeling she felt. The hair on the back of her neck stood up, a tingle twisted down her spine.
"Count Dooku." Palpatine said darkly, leaving Elia to snap her head over her shoulder and see the Count entering with two droids.
"This time we'll do it together." Obi-Wab told Elia and Anakin.
"I was about to say that." Anakin replied, standing between Elia and his master.
"Get help. You're no match for him. He's a Sith Lord." The Chancellor warned the trio, Elia looked back with narrowed eyes.
"Do you underestimate us, Chancellor?" Elia questioned him bitterly. Palpatine simply avoided her eyes. The Jedi removed their cloaks, and took their sabers in hand.
"Sith Lords are our speciality, Chancellor." Obi-Wan joked darkly.
"Your swords, please. We don't want to make a mess of things in front of the Chancellor." Count Dooku told them, asking for something more peaceful. Elia scoffed.
"You won't get away this time, Dooku." Elia said back to him. Obi-Wan flashed his blue lightsaber, along with Anakin's, followed by Elia's green one.
They took him on together, putting Dooku in the middle of their attacks. Everywhere he turned, one of the Jedi were there.
"I've been looking forward to this." Dooku smiled wickedly, revealing his ugly teeth.
"My powers have doubled since the last time we met, Count." Anakin replied, looking at the older man with anger burning in his blue eyes.
"Good. Twice the pride, double the fall." Dooku sneered. "And you, I see you've recovered nicely." He teased Elia.
"I'm doing better than I ever was." Elia snipped. She attacked once more, the men joining after her.
Dooku smirked lazily as he used the force to send Obi-Wan backwards from the fight. He got back up to take care of the droids. Anakin and Elia chased after Dooku up the stairs, Obi-Wan appeared behind him.
They thought they had cornered him, but Dooku kicked Anakin backwards into a wall, swung at Elia with his saber and catching her arm with it. It was still intact, but painful as ever. Dooku lifted Obi-Wan into the air with the power of the Force, and flung him far away into the railing of a balcony, then proceeded to tip the balcony onto him. The Kenobi Jedi fell unconscious.
Anakin grunted as he kicked Count Dooku from the stairs and onto the floor level, he landed gracefully. Elia leapt down and attacked the Sith, using everything in her. His red saber clashing against her green one.
"I sense great fear in you, Stormborn." Dooku sneered at Elia, who's face was scrunched up as she focused. "You have hate, anger, loneliness. I know what you crave, you crave family."
"I have all I've ever wanted." Elia muttered sharply, using her leg to kick his knee cap inwards. The sound of crunching bone echoed loudly. She pushed him backwards with the force, annoyingly, he got back up.
Anakin jumped in now, striking Dooku with immense anger. Elia could've sworn that in this moment, the Count was scared for his life. Anakin grabbed the man's wrists and sliced his saber right through them, gaining Dooku's saber now. Elia came up behind her husband, and smiled menacingly before kicking his other kneecap in. Dooku groaned in pain as he fell to his knees.
"Good, good." The Chancellor praised, Elia sucked in a sharp breath. Anakin now held Count Dooku with two lightsabers crossed at his neck, and Elia standing darkly over him.
"What is it they say... Karma's a bitch?" Elia bent down to his level.
"Kill him, Anakin." The Chancellor instructed, Elia did a double take to her husband. He looked as though he was seriously considering it. "Kill him now."
"I shouldn't." Anakin frowned, feeling conflicted.
"Do it." Palpatine barked. "Think of all the things he has taken from you." He said. For a moment, Elia and Anakin were blinded by anger. And in that moment, Elia turned to the Count.
"Got any last words?" She asked, Dooku did not open his mouth. "Suit yourself." Elia shrugged, standing up to stand next to her husband. Anakin took a deep breath in, and then executed the Sith. But the moment he did that, Elia felt guilt radiating from him.
"You did well. He was too dangerous to be kept alive." Palpatine told the two Jedi. Anakin dropped Dooku's saber and went to unlock Palpatine's shackles.
"Yes, but he was an unarmed prisoner. I shouldn't have done that, it's not the Jedi way." Anakin shook his head, angry at himself. Elia placed a secretive hand on the small of his back softly.
"We'll figure it out." Elia told him quietly, going over to Obi-Wan. She lifted him up and held him at his shoulders.
"It's only natural. He cut off your arm, almost killed Elia, and you wanted revenge." The Chancellor tried to reason with him. "It's not the first time, Anakin. Remember what you told me about your mother and the sand people?" The older man said now, Elia glared at Palpatine while his back was turned. "We should leave before more security droids come."
Anakin ran to Elia to take Obi-Wan off her hands, they shared a glance. One that said i feel bad and another said i don't.
gracis notes:
ROTS ERAAAAAAAA
it's about to get fucked upppppop
sorry in advance