'Padme!' Anakin screamed. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, and he couldn't catch her, couldn't reach out fast enough.
She tumbled down and hit the ground hard, and lay very still.
'Padme!' Anakin cried again, and then he yelled to the clone pilot, 'Put the ship down!'
Obi-Wan stood before him, his hands on Anakin's shoulders, holding him steady and firm. 'Don't let your personal feelings get in the way,' he reminded his Padawan. He turned to the pilot. 'Follow that speeder.' Anakin pushed to the side, peering over his Master's shoulder, and growled,
'Lower the ship!'
Obi-Wan turned to face him again, and this time, his look was not so sympathetic. 'Anakin,' he said flatly, showing that there was no room for debate. 'I can't take Dooku alone. If we catch him, we can end this war right now. We have a job to do.'
'I don't care!' Anakin yelled at him. He pushed out to the side again and yelled at the pilot, 'Put the ship down!'
'You'll be expelled from the Jedi Order,' Obi-Wan said, his grim look showing no room for any argument.
The blunt statement hit Anakin hard. 'I can't leave her,' he said, his voice suddenly little more than a whisper.
'Come to your senses,' said the uncompromising Obi-Wan. 'What do you think Padme would do if she were in your position?'
Anakin's shoulders slumped. 'She would do her duty,' he admitted. He turned and looked back toward where Padme had fallen, but they were now too far off, and there was too much dust.
Gunships screamed left and right, trading fire with laser cannon emplacements. On the ground, thousands of clone troopers battled the droids, and it was already becoming apparent that these new soldiers were indeed superior. One against one, a battle droid was nearly a match for a clone trooper, and a super battle droid even more than a match. But in groups and formations, the improvisation of the clone troopers, reacting to the fast- changing battleground and following the relayed orders of their Jedi commander, was quickly giving them all of the best vantage points, all the high ground and the most defensible positions.
The battle soon extended far overhead, as well, as Republic warships engaged those Trade Federation ships that had managed to get offplanet, and those that had not yet landed. Most of those Trade Federation ships inside the asteroid belt and immediately within the perimeter of the battle were troop carriers rather than battleships, and so the Republic was fast gaining the upper hand there, as well.
Over at the command center, an exhausted and dirty Mace Windu joined Master Yoda, the two sharing looks that combined hope for the present and fear for the future.
'You decided to bring them,' Mace stated.
'Troubling, it is,' Yoda replied, his large eyes slowly blinking. 'Two paths were there open, and this one alone offered the return of so many Jedi.'
Mace Windu nodded his approval of that choice, but Yoda only looked at the turmoil and destruction raging about him and blinked his large eyes once more.
Obi-Wan pushed past Anakin, moving toward the pilot. 'Follow that speeder!' The gunship did just that, zooming low. They found the speeder soon enough, parked outside a large tower. The gunship skimmed to a stop, moving a bit lower, and Anakin and Obi-Wan leapt out, rushing to the tower door. Hardly pausing, Anakin burst through, lightsaber in hand, entering a huge hangar, with cranes and control panels, tug-ships and workbenches.
They found Count Dooku inside, standing at a control panel, working some instruments. A small interstellar sail ship sat nearby, a graceful, shining craft with a circular pod set on two lander legs, the retracted sails sweeping out to narrowing points behind it, like folded wings.
'You're going to pay for all the Jedi you killed today, Dooku!' Anakin yelled at him, moving in determinedly. Again he felt the tug of a determined Obi-Wan, holding him back.
'We move in together,' Obi-Wan explained. 'You slowly on the-'
'No! I'm taking him now!' And Anakin pulled away and charged ahead.
'Anakin, no!'
Like a charging reek, the young Jedi came on, his green lightsaber ready to cut Dooku in half. The Count looked at him out of the corner of his eye, smiling as if truly amused.
Anakin didn't catch the cue. His rage moved him along, as it had with the Tusken Raiders.
But this was no simple warrior enemy. Dooku's hand shot out toward the charging Jedi, sending forth a Force push as solid as any stone wall, and a burst of blue Force lightning, unknown to Jedi, charged all about the trapped and lifted Jedi Padawan.
Anakin managed to hold onto his lightsaber as he went up into the air, held there by the power of the Count. With a wave of his hand, Dooku sent Anakin flying across the room, to crash into a distant wall, where he slumped down, dazed.
'As you can see, my Jedi powers are far beyond yours,' Dooku said with complete confidence and calm.
'I don't think so,' Obi-Wan countered, moving toward him in a more measured and defensive manner, his borrowed blue lightsaber held across his body diagonally, up over one shoulder.
Dooku smiled and ignited a red-glowing blade.
Obi-Wan stepped slowly at first, then came on in a sudden rush, his blue blade coming in hard, right to left.
But with only a slight movement, the red blade stabbed under the blue, then lifted up, and Obi-Wan's blade went flying harmlessly high of the mark. With a slight reversal of his wrist, Dooku stabbed straight ahead, and Obi-
