Star Wars: An Earthling's Journey

~Chapter 24~

°Melisa's POV°
   We ran off to find the Chancellor. This ship is huge and it's like a full on maze! This is gonna take a while.

(time skip weeeeeeee!)

°Anakin's POV°
   We finally found Chancellor Palpatine strapped to a chair on the bridge. Melisa rushed over to free him but as she did, General Grievous showed up.

   "I've been waiting for you, Jedi." He said in his very raspy voice. It sounded like he always has a sore throat and it won't go away, "SEIZE THEM!" He commanded. Right as he did, several battle droids came to his side. They looked a lot like him, except that they only had two arms and they were mostly black. I soon realised they were assassin droids, they're a tough bunch to kill.

   Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and I wasted no time in attacking the three assassin droids while Melisa worked on freeing the Chancellor.

°Melisa's POV°
   I freed the Chancellor in no time, using my lightsaber to cut the restraints. I told him to stay hidden while I joined the rest in taking down the assassin droids.

   I saw that Ahsoka was pinned to the ground and our Masters were busy with their own opponents so I Force pushed the assassin droid off of Ahsoka and made a slice for its head. Unfortunately, the droid recovered quickly and managed to block my attack. Ahsoka made a strike to its legs, swiftly chopping them off and giving me the opening to deal the finishing blow. Our Masters had finished off their droids and were rushing towards us.

   "Where's the Chancellor?" Anakin asked.

   "I'm right here Anakin and unharmed. Thanks to your Padawan, I was able to hide from Grievous and his minions." Palpatine replied before I could explain to Anakin why he wasn't in sight.

   I let out a sigh of relief, glad that the Chancellor was out of harm's way. Anakin suggested that we should best be going since Grievous could come back at any moment and capture us. We all agreed and started to sprint for our exit when the ship started tilting.

   This can't be good.

   "The ship's falling apart! We won't have enough time to escape! We'll have to pilot it to the nearest planet!" Anakin screamed. No other words had to be said as we all rushed to the cockpit. Anakin and I took the pilot and co-pilot seats respectively.

   "Are you sure you can fly this?!" Obi-Wan questioned.

   "Of course we can, I hope." I responded, whispering the last two words.

   A few minutes later, there was the sound of an explosion from the back of the ship, "what was that?!" I questioned.

   "Don't worry, we're still flying half a ship!" Obi-Wan answered.

   In a few seconds, we were close enough to hail the resistance base located on the planet. Anakin told the commander that we were flying the Separatist ship and that we were coming in too hot. The commander then responded that he will send fighters to flank us and help cool the ship down.

   We soon landed, or should I say crashed as controlled as we could, on the runway provided for us and the ship was no longer on fire. We escorted the Chancellor out, telling the commander that we needed a ship to get back to Coruscant. The commander, a clone that appeared to be slightly older and seemed to have been put out of battle, gladly obliged and gave us a very capable ship to return to Coruscant as quickly as possible.

   Once we were in space, Anakin imputed the coordinates and made the jump to hyperspace. We arrived at Coruscant in mere minutes and all of us were surprised at the speed of the ship. Nonetheless, we quickly made our way out and handed the Chancellor over to his guards to be escorted back to his room.

   Obi-Wan spoke up once the Chancellor was out of earshot, "Anakin, you and I will give our report to the Council. Ahsoka, you and Melisa go to your rooms to rest and recuperate, the Council might have another mission for us and we must be well rested by then." Ahsoka and I bowed, then headed for our separate rooms.

°Anakin's POV°
   Once our Padawans were out of sight, Obi-Wan and I headed for the Council Room. We gave our report and the Council told us that we could relax for a bit since everything seems to be fine for now.

°Melisa's POV°
   When I closed the door to my room, that voice popped up in my head again.

   ??? - Come find me, child. I am closer than you think.

   Mel - Hah! You expect me to give in? Well even if I wanted to, I couldn't because you haven't given me directions to find you.

   ??? - Oh, my apologies child. Come to the Chancellor's office, you will find me there. I await your arrival.

   I shuddered at the thought of going there and meeting him. I could feel him smirk when he said that he was waiting for me and that made me really uncomfortable. I decided to go out of curiosity, I wanted to know what he looked like even though I already have a pretty solid guess in my mind.

   While I was on my way to the Chancellor's office, I bumped into Anakin. He asked me why I was going towards the Chancellor's office and I told him that Palpatine wanted to talk to me about something – which was a complete lie. He bought it, thankfully, though he was a little skeptical about it since the Chancellor didn't really ask to talk to Padawans like me. If there was anything he needed to tell the Jedi, he would usually tell the Council Members, then they would relay the message to the rest of the Jedi.

°??? POV°
   She's here. Finally. My plan will start to take shape after this step is done.

°Melisa's POV°
   The door to the Chancellor's office opened without me having to knock or say a word. As expected, Palpatine sits behind the desk and motions for me to sit in the chair in front of him.

   "Leave us." He says to his guards. They nod and head out the door.

   He turns his attention back to me and starts up a conversation. A normal, getting to know each other conversation. In the middle of our conversation, he asked why I was here. I wasn't going to tell him that a voice in my head told me that I could find it here, though I'm pretty sure it's him, so I said that Anakin sent me.

   "LIES!" He bangs his desk along with his accusation, which terrified me. My breathing quickened and I could tell that my eyes were filled with terror. His voice echoed through the room, like a boom box on full blast. I didn't know a man his age could even shout that loudly, let alone bash his desk full force without breaking anything. He did calm down after a while though and apologised for his outburst. I relaxed but didn't let my guard down.