The Clone Wars Gets A New Victim

Chapter 33: The Endgame

The ship changed directions and what was once the floor became the wall. Skywalker, the chancellor, and the padawan began to run along through the elevator shaft.

Grim maneuvered herself between the two men, which wasn't hard.

Even while carrying their master, Skywalker sped ahead.

Being forced to play the role of an elderly and frightened defenseless chancellor, Palpatine lagged behind.

Leaving Grim to keep a steady pace to be in the middle of the two adults.

The pieces of her plan were falling into place.

If Grim got Palpatine to fall directly behind her instead of Anakin she would be able to kick him down to the bottom of the shaft. Killing him when he hit the ground - and if not then when an elevator passed.

It was easy to make it look like an accident. A perfect cover to the act, with all the chaos of this mission.

Sure with Palpatine dead the Republic would quickly become unstable, but with Dooku already dead both sides would be left without a leader.

  In the roaring chaos it could perhaps be possible to negotiate peace.

With the Sith defeated, victory would surely be in sight.

Suddenly the elevator shaft was no longer a hallway and they began to fall.

This was the moment of truth, if everything played into her hands then she would win the Clone War.

Win the game of chess.

Her reflexes betrayed her.

She grabbed onto a piece of metal sticking out, Skywalker having missed. Suddenly she was the one in the lead, Skywalker having grabbed onto one of her boots, and Palpatine holding onto him.

  She muttered a few curse words as she realized her plan had not been as calculated as she had thought.

  Grim knew it had been a gamble - but here at the end everything was a gamble.

Underneath her Obi-Wan groaned, indicating he had woken up. "Did I miss something?" he asked.

Grim risked a look down to give a comedic response, to edge away her own anger at the failure of her plan. "Just Skywalker commiting a war crime...again."

"Oh?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Grim is just joking," replied Anakin defensively. He couldn't get in trouble for killing Dooku while unarmed.

Obi-Wan looked up. "What is that?"

"Oh, oops," said Anakin as he realized the elevator was heading towards them.

Grim pulled out her comlink. "Artoo shut down the elevator!"

  "Too late! Jump!" said Obi-Wan.

They all jumped and as they began to fall in the elevator shaft the three Jedi grabbed their grapple cables and used them to get through an open elevator door. Anakin carrying Palpatine. The four landed ungracefully on stable ground. All of them stood up, but only Grim took the time to dust herself off.

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

Anakin pulled out his comlink. "Artoo, get down here. Artoo do you copy?"

There was a whistle followed by beeping, and Grim cursed herself for still not understanding the damned droid three years later.

They began to run through the hallways to reach the hangar bay, Grim was behind the three men, knowing what was coming. "Boys wait this is going to be a trap! There are-"