Chapter 3

Anakin hefted Obi-Wan's unresponsive body onto his shoulders. Gesturing for the Chancellor to follow them, Ahsoka and Anakin rushed for the elevators. Ahsoka reached it first and called the elevator, but the door didn't open.

"Elevator's not working," she grumbled.

Anakin pulled out his comlink, "Artoo, activate elevator 3224."

There was no response from the droid. Anakin was just about to ask again when the ship lurched. Ahsoka lunged forward and grabbed the bottom of the door frame of the now open elevator shaft. Chancellor Palpatine grabbed onto her leg to avoid sliding down the hall. Anakin clung to the frame next to her with his gloved mechanical hand, the other holding onto the unconscious Master Kenobi.

The ship was now fully horizontal, so Ahsoka took advantage of the situation. She helped the Chancellor grab onto the door frame and then climbed up into the elevator shaft. Since it was now sideways, it was just a long hallway. Palpatine clambered up after her, and Anakin took her offered hand to get up while carrying Obi-Wan.

"We can't wait," Ahsoka said, "we'll have to be fast."

They started running down the shaft. For a few moments, Ahsoka thought that they wouldn't run into anymore problems until they had to leave the elevator shaft. Unfortunately, she was wrong.

The Invisible Hand started to level out again. They kept running for as long as they could, but the ship had righted itself very quickly. They lost their footing and began sliding down the elevator shaft. Ahsoka kept her hands on the side of the shaft, trying to find some wire or rope or ledge to grab onto.

At the same time, Anakin and Ahsoka closed their hands around a few loose wires in the wall, jerking to a stop. Luckily, the Chancellor had clung to Anakin's leg so he was still safe.

Of course, Obi-Wan chose that moment to regain consciousness. He slowly woke up and tried to look around, exclaiming, "woah!" when he saw that they were hanging from a wire in an elevator shaft.

"Easy . . ." Anakin said as Obi-Wan wrapped his arms around Anakin's chest to keep himself from falling.

"We're in a bit of a situation." Ahsoka stated.

"Did I miss something?" Obi-Wan said sarcastically.

The ship tilted again, and Ahsoka heard a disturbing screeching noise. Anakin grimaced. "Hold on."

"What is that?" Obi-Wan asked, all three Jedi looking up.

Ahsoka's orange face paled at the sight of the elevator dropping towards them at a nauseating speed.

"Oops." Obi-Wan said.

"Artoo, Artoo, shut down the elevator." Anakin said into his comm, but there was no reply.

"Too late!" Ahsoka shouted.

"Jump!" Obi-Wan advised, and they did.

They slid down the shaft again, but the elevator was catching up with them. Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan pulled out their grappling hooks and unravelled them. Palpatine held tightly to Anakin's leg as they threw their grappling hooks.

The hooks caught, and they fell a few more dozen feet before they reached the end of the ropes and swung through an open doorway, just before the elevator went roaring past.

Ahsoka pulled herself off the ground, checking to make sure she still had her lightsabers and other gadgets. Anakin helped Chancellor Palpatine up.

"Let's see if we can find something in the hangar bay that's still flyable." Obi-Wan suggested.

"Artoo, get down here. Artoo, do you copy?"

They began running down the hallway, Ahsoka leading the way. She could hear the Chancellor huffing and puffing at the back. Ahsoka's blood pumped through her veins as she thought about how easy their rescue had been so far.

Sure, they'd crashed their ships, sliced up battle droids, gotten stuck in a elevator shaft, fought Count Dooku, and gotten stuck in an elevator shaft again—but it had been easier than some of their other missions they'd gone on. It made Ahsoka uneasy.

Her instincts were correct, and they were forced to stop in the middle of the hallway when ray shields activated all around them, trapping them in a cylinder of transparent energy.

"Ray shields!" Anakin announced with distaste.

"Wait a minute, how did this happen? We're smarter than this." Obi-Wan said in disbelief.

"Apparently not, Master," Ahsoka retorted.

"I say . . . patience," Anakin offered.

"Patience?" Obi-Wan said, and Ahsoka's face mirrored his surprise. Anakin was a Jedi known the least for his patience.

"Yes, Artoo will be along in a few moments and then . . . he'll release the ray shields," Anakin explained.

The next second, Artoo-Detoo came screaming into the hallway, rolling at high speed and crashing into the opposite wall.

"See, no problem," Anakin smiled and waited for Artoo to compose himself.

Ahsoka's face fell when the door Artoo had just come through opened again, revealing multiple destroyer droids and super battle droids. One of them said, "don't move!" Artoo zapped it with his electric arm, and the droid exclaimed, "ow!" before it kicked over the little droid.

"Well," Ahsoka sighed.

Obi-Wan said, "do you have a plan B?"

~

"Ah, yes. The Negotiator." General Grievous greeted when Ahsoka, Anakin, Obi-Wan, the Chancellor, and Artoo were brought into the bridge of the Invisible Hand. Droids sat at each station, and two droid bodyguards stood near Grievous holding their electro staffs. Ahsoka's wrists were cuffed behind her back and a droid stood on either side of her, holding her arms. Their lightsabers had been confiscated.

"General Kenobi. We've been waiting for you," Grievous said, sneering.

It was an interesting sound coming from the droid commander. General Grievous was more machine than being now. He had replaced most of his body with cybernetic implants, leaving only his lungs, heart, brain, and eyes as part of organic matter. His feet resembled a bird's talons and his hands looked like a skeleton's. His entire body looked like a metal skeleton with a few gruesome blobs of matter.

"That wasn't much of a rescue," the cyborg continued as he yanked their lightsabers out of a droid's hand. "You're welcome." The droid said, walking away.

General Grievous laughed, slowly walking down the line of prisoners. "Anakin Skywalker. You're still younger than someone with your reputation suggests."

"General Grievous. You're still shorter than someone with your reputation suggests."

Grievous laughed, and then reached the end of the lineup, facing Ahsoka. "Skywalker's side-kick. Still following him around like a lost puppy, I see."

"Are you're still relying on these stupid battle droids, I see." Ahsoka shot back, not at all fazed by his degradation of her Jedi Knight status. "Although I suppose we should thank you for that, it makes our job so much easier."

Grievous gave his signature hacking cough, "Jedi scum."

"Ahsoka, try not to upset him. We have a job to do." Obi-Wan said, perfectly calm.

General Grievous tucked their lightsabers into his cloak, "your lightsabers will make a fine addition to my collection."

Ahsoka chuckled and Obi-Wan spoke, "Not this time. And this time you won't escape."

"Artoo!" Anakin cued his companion, and the little astromech bounced around and extended every appendage he had, a few of them crackling with electricity while others whirred with mini saws.

At the same time, Obi-Wan spun around, used the Force to call his lightsaber back to his hand, and sliced through his bonds and Anakin's. Ahsoka flipped backwards, kicking away her two guards and landing crouched. Anakin had retrieved his own lightsaber and freed Ahsoka's hands, and she quickly pulled her lightsabers from Grievous's cloak, activating them as soon as they hit her hands.

"Crush them! Make them suffer!" General Grievous commanded.

Chaos erupted. Blasters fired at them from all sides as they sliced their laser swords through the air. Ahsoka and Obi-Wan stepped away from the group, each of them engaging one of Grievous's bodyguards while Anakin continued deflecting the laser bolts. Chancellor Palpatine was being dragged away by two battle droids, and Anakin quickly followed them to free him.

Ahsoka blocked the bodyguard's first few strikes with her two lightsabers, but the staff was made of a material that her lightsaber couldn't cut through. Out of the corner of her eye, Ahsoka saw Obi-Wan cut off the head of the droid attacking him, but it continued fighting. Ahsoka turned her attention back to her assailant, focusing all of her control into defeating it. Sparks flew wherever her lightsaber and the five foot long staff collided. Eventually though, she was able to cut the droid in half, about the same time as Obi-Wan's attacker crumbled into pieces.

Without speaking, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, and Anakin—having freed the Chancellor—sliced through the remaining battle droids, until the only metal being left besides Artoo was General Grievous. The droid commander picked up one of his guards' fallen electro staffs, facing Obi-Wan. Anakin and Ahsoka closed in on him from each side, trapping him between them and the window of the bridge.

General Grievous laughed. "You lose, General Kenobi."

Ahsoka charged forward at the same time as Anakin and Obi-Wan, but instead of defending himself, Grievous turned and threw the electro staff at the window, shattering it.

Grievous was immediately sucked into space, but Ahsoka had no doubt that he had a few tricks up his sleeve, and was already on his way to a ship. She had more important matters to attend to.

Anakin and Obi-Wan were quicker than her, grabbing onto a console to avoid being sucked out the window. Palpatine held onto a chair. Ahsoka wasn't as quick and missed the console when she reached for it, but managed to grab onto Anakin's leg instead. She held on tightly until the blast shield closed over the window, making them drop to the floor.

Ahsoka picked herself up, brushing herself off. Most of the droid parts had been sucked into space, so they were the only ones left. The three Jedi gathered around the navigator's chair.

"All the escape pods have been launched," Anakin announced.

"Grievous." Obi-Wan stated. "Can you fly a cruiser like this?" He asked Anakin, who was well known for his piloting skills.

"You mean, do I know how to land what's left of this thing?" Anakin corrected as he sat down in the pilot's chair.

"Well?" Ahsoka prompted.

"Under the circumstances, I'd say the ability to pilot this thing is irrelevant. Strap yourselves in."

Ahsoka and Obi-Wan sat on either side of Anakin, ready to help however they could. Anakin began to do whatever he was able to in order to land safely.

"Pressure rising. We've got to slow this wreck down. Open all hatches, extend all flaps, and drag fins." Anakin ordered, and Ahsoka and Obi-Wan obeyed.

The ship rocked as part of it broke away. Ahsoka glanced at the screen in front of her, shocked by what she saw.

"We lost something," Anakin said, sounding worried.

Obi-Wan gave a little laugh. "Not to worry, we're still flying half a ship."

The Invisible Hand tilted downwards, getting caught in Coruscant's gravity. It moved forward, becoming hotter and faster.

"Now we're really picking up speed," Ahsoka said.

"We're in the atmosphere," Obi-Wan reported.

Anakin pointed to one of the controls by Ahsoka. "Grab that, keep us level." She did as she was told.

"Steady, steady."

"Easy, Artoo. Hang on, this may get a little rough. We lost our heat shields."

"Fireships on the left and the right."

A pilot's voice from one of the ships came over the comm. "We'll take you in."

"Copy that. Landing strip's straight ahead."

"We're coming in too hot!"

"Easy, easy."

The fireships sprayed the flaming craft as much as they could, trying to cool it down and keep the fire under control. There wasn't much they could do, and the landing platform was quickly approaching.

Ahsoka readied herself, glancing behind her to see if the Chancellor was prepared for the landing. He was holding on to the console in front of him tightly. Ahsoka faced forward, doing the same.

An earsplitting screeching sound filled the air as the ship hit the landing platform, jolting Ahsoka and the others. Artoo beeped in alarm. The ship slid across the landing platform, slowly losing speed.

With a lurch, the ship finally came to a stop, leaving its occupants sweaty, relieved, and alive.

They shared a laugh. Ahsoka unclenched her hands, smiling. Obi-Wan brushed his hair back from his forehead as he grinned, "another happy landing."

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