In the Aftermath

Bridging the Chasms

"Not to worry, we're still flying half a ship."

Obi-Wan sounded far too sarcastic for someone who was currently in a life or death situation. Perhaps he thought a bit of humor might just alleviate some of their immense tension? Padmé didn't think it was working out too well. 

Immediately, upon the destruction of the controls and the death of General Grievous, Anakin got to work attempting to figure out some way to pilot the rapidly crashing death trap.  Artoo helped Obi-Wan send out an emergency message to the Republic troops, so now the clone troopers were also trying to assist from their positions on the outside.  Meanwhile, Padmé and Palpatine strapped themselves in for what was sure to be the ride of their lives.  Hopefully it wouldn't be the final one. 

Well, Padmé glanced over at him. For some of us, at least!

That would certainly be one way to prevent the future emperor's rise to power.  It could have just been from the flames engulfing the outside of the ship, but Palpatine was sweating. However, Padmé had no way of truly knowing whether this show of fear Palpatine was putting on was indeed genuine.  Surely even he hadn't predicted Grievous's mutiny, much less the extent of the danger it now put them all in.  His original plan was to have Anakin kill Dooku, which hadn't succeeded, and opened the metaphorical blast doors for everything that has happened afterwards. Padmé liked to think that the true magnitude of his failure was just eating the old man up inside. He had no apprentice, no underling, no one to run the other half of his Clone Wars grand scheme, and Anakin STILL had not fallen to the temptation of the dark side. It was hard for Padmé to keep the satisfied smirk off her face.  However, she was indeed a very good politician, and a very good politician always knows how to keep their true feelings out of sight from the public.

"Well..." Anakin suddenly spoke out, accompanied by a what sounded like a booming noise from underneath their feet, "...bad news is we just lost most of the lower decks of the ship to the atmosphere, and to the fire. Obviously. The good news is that I'm like...85% sure that we didn't need it anyway! Artoo told me-"

Artoo immediately cut in with some amount of protest, causing Anakin to give an unintended correction to his passengers.

"What do you mean only 58%?! You said it was definitely an 85!"

The two continued on with their argument, seemingly oblivious to their captive audience.

"I don't care that Threepio is the 'numbers guy' and you're the 'action one.' What's that got to do with your calculating abilities? You're a droid! You literally exist because of numbers, so you can't get them wrong!...No, I don't believe 'Droid Dyslexia' is a good enough excuse! I'm not even sure I believe that's a real thing..."

Padmé gripped the armrests of her seat just a bit tighter as she let the fight between her husband and his droid fade into the back of her thoughts. Sometimes, she wished Anakin could just take a page out of everyone else's holobooks and learn to keep his mouth shut in situations like this. He wouldn't make for a very good politician.  On the plus side though, it seemed there was now a modicum of actual terror on Palpatine's face now. Small victories.

***
After what Obi-Wan described as "another happy landing," Padmé was more than a little shaken up. Anakin diligently clung to her side as the two made their way to her office for a little more privacy from the cacophony that met the survivors of the Invisible Hand upon disembarking.

"I need to be taking my position as the senator's bodyguard more seriously," he argued over his comm, "as should the council, Master. Senator Amidala was abducted because I was too busy sitting through another council meeting that I couldn't even participate in!"