our broken promises ~ a.skywalker

Chapter 17: Disasters Aboard

PADMÉ AMIDALA STEPPED OUT OF HER CELL, SHOCKED. "Anakin?" She took one look at his face and immediately recognized the boy. It's been years since the two have seen each other, but Anakin still manages to somewhat look like the little kid on Tatooine from not long ago.

Anakin caught himself staring for a moment. He remembers meeting Padmé when he was a child, but she's still gorgeous. Anakin even remembers having had a small crush on her when he was ten. But his feelings were different now. She was pretty and smart, that's undeniable, but the crush had died out.

"Surprise?" Anakin wore a smug smile. He tried his best to ignore the mess of the last five minutes, and he always avoids a problem with sarcasm. Anakin extended a helping hand to assist Padmé out of her cell.

"You look so...different," Padmé inspected his appearance down to the scars on his face. She would have never imagined the little boy from Tatooine to grow up into the fierce warrior standing in front of her. 

"I could say the same to you," Anakin responded with a light and kind tone. He worried he'd stumble on his words and mess up as he did in the past, but he didn't. It was like Padmé didn't make him nervous anymore. Anakin was glad. 

Kora was beginning to grow slightly impatient. Who knows the number of droids searching for them right now? They had no time to waste. She marched up to the two of them, slightly confused to see them holding hands. She shook her head, "Sorry to break up this moment but we've got to go." 

Anakin noticed Kora's momentary stare at his hands clasped with the Senator's and immediately let go. He didn't want Kora to get the wrong idea from the two of them, especially since his attention was no longer on Padmé.

"I'll notify Cal and Ahsoka that we're on our way back," Kora was just about to continue walking but paused, remembering something. She turned to face Senator Amidala. "I'm sorry, we haven't formally met. I'm Kora Knight."

With a smile, the brunette responded, "Padmé Amidala, but please, call me Padmé."

Leading the way out, Kora still manages to avert looking Anakin in the eye. She cautiously left the room, checking both left and right for wandering droids. She signaled to the duo behind them, telling them it was all clear. 

Their walking became a faster pace, and soon the three of them were running. Both Anakin and Kora had their hands resting on their sabers, ready to start fighting at any given moment.

"So what's the plan exactly?" wondered Padmé.

"Get out of this ship alive with our Padawans and head back to Raxus where Artoo is waiting with our ship," Anakin hastily replied. It was only when repeating it that he realized it was not such a solid plan. It was bound to fall apart.

"Well, that won't work," the Senator bluntly said. "What about causing a distraction? Lead them away opposite to us?"

Slowing down her pace, Kora wanted to listen to what Padmé had to say. Anakin followed. "What do you propose?"

"Rigging an explosion or using decoys. Something like that. Lead them away from the hangar making it easier for us to steal a ship."

As Padmé came up with a plan, Kora only recognized how similar it was to the first time she was in this situation with Anakin. Go to the hangar, steal a ship, etc. However, she wasn't sure the Separatists would fall for that trick again. They might be stupid, but they always learn from their mistakes. Well- mostly. 

Then, an even crazier idea popped into Kora's mind. "What if we take over the bridge and crash the ship? There's another Separatist dreadnought circling Raxus along with us- they'd be a good target."