Zelina kneeled down beside Obi-Wan, checking his pulse before turning him over. Despite being unconscious, he seemed like he'd be okay, so long as they still got out of here.

After releasing the Chancellor, Anakin appeared at her side, looking like he was about to go off on a long rant. "Zelina—" he started seriously, but she cut him off.

"Anakin, I'm not going to have this argument with you in front of the Chancellor—let's just get out of here," she said seriously, stepping aside and gesturing to Obi-Wan. "You got him?"

"I do."

Palpatine paused when he saw them fretting over Obi-Wan's fallen form, halting his mad dash towards the exit. "Leave him, or we'll never make it—we must get off this ship before it's too late."

Zelina scowled, but Anakin answered before she could, pulling Obi-Wan onto his back. "His fate will be the same as ours," Anakin said in a stubborn voice that left no room for argument.

Palpatine relented, though he looked rather annoyed that they'd stopped to pick up Obi-Wan. Zelina blatantly ignored him, making her way back to the elevator they'd used to get here.

"Anakin, the elevator's not working—we need R2," she told him as he approached.

Anakin nodded, pulling out his communications device for R2. "R2, activate elevator 3224."

Zelina looked to Anakin, about to make a quip about hoping it wouldn't take as long to get the elevator working this time when the ship suddenly lurched, drastically tilting down. Zelina cursed, Palpatine falling rather ungraciously before he caught the side of the elevator, Anakin doing the same. With a small grunt, Zelina waved her hand, opening the elevator doors with the Force and grabbing onto the edge of the floor as the ship continued to tilt.

"Go—we might be able to make it to our floor before they stabilize the ship," she commanded. The three of them pulled themselves up into the elevator shaft, running at a dead sprint down the length of the shaft since it was currently on its side. Despite having Obi-Wan on his back, Anakin still took the lead.

Halfway there, Zelina felt the floor start to shift, her stomach doing an unpleasant flip. "Brace yourselves—we're leveling out," she announced, the ship gradually but noticeably shifting back to its upright position. They were all still knocked off their feet, sliding down the shaft since it was still at an angle they weren't dropping like a weight through empty air. Palpatine latched onto Anakin's leg as they slid, Anakin's hand scrambling for something to hold onto. Zelina, meanwhile, spotted a ledge coming up, one she could pull herself onto once the ship straightened. She kicked off the side they were sliding on, backflipping and landing hard with both hands clutching the surface, dangling precariously before the ship straightened enough she could start to pull herself onto the ledge.

Glancing behind her, she saw Anakin holding onto some wiring in the wall, Obi-Wan dangling—still unconscious—on his back and Palpatine holding to his leg for dear life.

She was glad she'd gone for the ledge instead of adding to that mess.

A shout of alarm drew her attention back to Obi-Wan, who'd returned to consciousness at the worst moment. Honestly, he needed to work on his timing.

Upon seeing the possible plunge to his death, Obi-Wan jerked upright, hooking his arms around Anakin and holding on almost as desperately as the Chancellor, whose only anchor to a shot at continuing life was Anakin's foot.

"Easy—we're in a bit of a situation," Anakin reprimanded him.

"Did I miss something?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Everything," Zelina quipped as she got to her feet on her ledge.

"Hold on," Anakin said. Zelina was looking around for their way out--the next level, hopefully. There was one a little ways below them...

"What is that?" Obi-Wan asked sharply, drawing Zelina's attention.

"Uh..." Anakin sounded pretty stressed...

Looking up, Zelina saw why.

The elevator was coming back down.

Rapidly.

"R2—R2, shut down the elevator," Anakin tried, but the elevator was coming far too fast for that.

"Chancellor, I'm going to throw you," Zelina said suddenly, giving no one else time to register what she was thinking as she waved a hand to open the doors to the level below them.

"What?" he asked sharply.

"No time to argue!"

Without waiting for permission of any kind, she lifted him with the Force, using his surprise to her advantage as his grip on Anakin's foot slackened enough for Zelina to pull him off Anakin, then she lowered and pushed him into the hall below them with the Force.

"Drop!" she ordered the other two. Her spot put her safely away from the elevator—theirs they would be crushed if they stayed.

Anakin obeyed without question, letting go of the wires and allowing Zelina to push him and Obi-Wan into the hall as he passed. The next instant she had to put her back flat against the wall, standing flush against the ledge as the elevator roared past.

"Zelina!"

Anakin's shout echoed up the elevator shaft, Zelina sticking her head out so he could see she was all right.

"You got me?" Zelina asked, leaning over the edge so he knew she had the intention to jump. Either he'd catch her with his hands or he'd catch her with the Force. Either way, she knew he'd catch her.

She just wanted to make sure he was ready.

"Ready," Anakin called back, arms outstretched and waiting before she took a deep breath and stepped off the ledge, pushing forward enough it would bring her close to Anakin. She reached out her arm, managing to latch on when she felt his gloved mechanical hand meet hers. He grunted, going down on one knee with the force of her fall but holding on. Zelina hit the side of the elevator shaft, both of them taking a moment to recover before Anakin started to pull her up and into the hallway. Obi-Wan came over to assist, grabbing her other arm so that within moments she was lying on her back between the two.

Zelina let out a long breath of relief. "Well, that was fun."

Obi-Wan patted her shoulder, helping her to her feet. "Let's see if we can find something in the hangar bay that's still flyable."

"R2, get down here. R2, do you copy?" Anakin called into his com unit, a series of beeps telling them the little droid had heard him.

"Come on—we're back on their security feeds, so we need to get moving," Zelina announced, pulling Anakin forward by the sleeve before they started to run down the hall.

The sooner they were off this ship, the better.

**************************************************

"There's four of us, and none of us bothered to look up?" Zelina muttered incredulously as the four of them, plus R2, were led to the bridge of Grievous' ship.

"We had other things on our mind," Anakin answered.

"Still, just one of us had to be bothered to look up for us to see the ray shield. Just one of us, and we would have been fine instead of captured," Zelina grumbled.

"You didn't see it, either."

"...Shut up."

The two stopped their bickering automatically as their group entered the bridge of Grievous' ship in cuffs. Zelina's eyes darted about the room to take note of how many droids there were, the Neimoidian, the two Magna guards...

And General Grievous.

An age old hatred of the droid general flared up inside her upon seeing him, a hatred she worked to stifle before it got out of hand and got them into more trouble than they were already in.

Maybe they'd be lucky, and they could kill General Grievous as well today.

"Ah, yes...The Negotiator, General Kenobi. We've been waiting for you. That wasn't much of a rescue," Grievous goaded, snatching their lightsabers from the droid that had confiscated them. Seeing his robotic fingers curled around Ur-Sema's lightsaber again made a dark fury bubble up inside Zelina, and she did nothing to hide the contemptuous look she gave Grievous.

"And—" Grievous paused to cough. "Anakin Skywalker, complete with the little sidekick."

Zelina scowled. Why did she keep getting called Anakin's sidekick? Could they not get any more creative?

Then again, the statement did get under her skin as it stood...

"Just think, this little sidekick cut off one of your arms. I do hope you've improved by then, Wheezy," Zelina returned, expression cool. A smirk flashed across Anakin's face while Grievous glared at her.

"Jedi scum," he hissed, turning away.

"Normally, it's Anakin I have to remind to play nice, not you," Obi-Wan chided her.

"No, it's me, too," she corrected. Beside them, R2 locked himself in an upright position, the red light on his dome turning blue.

That was their signal he was ready.

"Your lightsabers will be a fine addition to my collection—and I am pleased to see my first restored," Grievous sneered, most of the malice in his words aimed at Zelina.

He was just trying to get a rise out of her.

"Not this time—and this time, you won't escape," Obi-Wan returned with a smile.

"R2!" Anakin said sharply, and R2 suddenly went berserk, sparks and electricity flying everywhere as a distraction while Obi-Wan called his lightsaber back into his bound hands, cutting his bonds, then Anakin's, and finally Zelina's. She'd hardly straightened before Anakin was offering her lightsabers to her, his blade already activated in his other hand.

"How thoughtful," she quipped before turning to cut down the battle droids closest to her.

Best to get rid of the nuisances first before moving on to Grievous.

"Make them suffer!" Grievous growled. Obi-Wan intercepted the two Magna Guards Grievous retreated behind, Anakin chasing after the Chancellor as a few battle droids tried to lead him away, Zelina continuing to plow right through the battle droids.

Once she finished, she turned to find herself face to face with one of the Magna Guards, Obi-Wan having split them up as he forced himself between the two.

Of course.

Zelina batted aside the droid's spinning electrostaff, teeth clenched as she aimed to either destroy the staff or cut a few parts off the droid between her defensive maneuvers, refusing to be pushed back by its attacks.

She didn't pay much attention to where the other two were, so she was mildly surprised when Anakin appeared at her side, blocking the electrostaff the same time she did. She shot him a quick smile as they both disengaged, waiting for the moment to come in again for the opportunity she could exploit now that she was expecting it.

Anakin seemed to automatically know what she was thinking, as he didn't draw out the fight long, quickly creating the window Zelina was looking for as they both blocked the staff on opposite ends at the same time again. This time, in the brief lull while the staff was stuck in one place before the droid disengaged, Zelina pulled out her shoto blade and sliced the staff in half. Anakin and she lunged forward, Zelina stabbing the droid through the chest while Anakin cut clean through its waist.

One Magna Guard down.

They both turned to see how Obi-Wan was doing, managing to see him cut his Magna Guard into pieces.

Make that just Grievous left.

The three of them boxed Grievous in, putting his back to the viewport as Anakin and Obi-Wan ended up on either side of the walkway, Zelina standing on one of the control panels in the perfect position to jump down on him from above. Grievous picked up Obi-Wan's Magna Guard's fallen staff, reptilian yellow eyes flickering between the three Jedi.

"You lose, General Kenobi!" Grievous spat before using the staff to smash a hole in the viewport.

Zelina cursed, dropping to place herself behind the control console as the window shattered, allowing space to try and suck them out into its deadly vacuum. She saw Obi-Wan's and Anakin's hands appear over the edge of the console, latching on to both Anakin's and Obi-Wan's arms to keep them from being sucked out of the ship, bracing her feet against the console. It was a good thing she did, because Obi-Wan slipped, his grip on Zelina the only thing keeping him with them.

Eventually the docking bay sealed itself again, and they all got back on their feet in relief, looking around the empty bridge.

Well...they had a ship, now. Though she really didn't want to stay on this one since it was under heavy fire and crawling with enemy forces.

They weren't given much of a choice.

"All the escape pods have been launched," Anakin announced as some of the displays started flashing a warning.

"Grievous," Obi-Wan cursed before turning back to Anakin. "Can you fly a cruiser like this?"

Anakin sighed in irritation. "You mean learn how to land what's left of this thing."

"Well?"

"Well, under the circumstances, I'd say the ability to pilot this thing is irrelevant. Strap yourselves in."

Everyone found a seat, Anakin clearly taking the piloting spot. Everyone was around something spitting out readings, but Zelina had no idea what hers were saying. She didn't know how the larger ships worked, she was more of a one-person fighter pilot.

"Open all hatches, extend all flaps and drag vents," Anakin told Obi-Wan, who was apparently sitting somewhere useful.

Well, she'd just sit back and pray to the Force they didn't die, then.

R2 wheeled past her, connecting himself to a console and doing...something with the ship. She didn't quite know what.

Whatever it was might have been a mistake, as not long after R2 did his thing, the entire ship lurched, and they started picking up speed in their descent towards Coruscant while R2 whirred a sound that came suspiciously close to an 'uh-oh.'

"We lost something..." Anakin announced, glancing towards the back of the ship before turning his attention back to what he was doing.

"Not to worry—we are still flying half a ship," Obi-Wan said cheerfully.

"True, true, it's better than being blasted out of the sky entirely," Zelina added.

After that, everything came rapid-fire, the conversation almost moving too fast to properly identify who said what.

"We're in the atmosphere."

"Grab that—keep us level."

"Steady..."

"Easy, R2!"

"So this is how I die—I always knew it would be from your piloting, Ani."

"Not helping!"

"Five thousand—five ships on the left and the right."

"Landing strip's straight ahead!"

"We're coming in too hot."

Here it comes, Zelina thought, bracing herself as the landing strip loomed ahead, their speeds still fast enough she had no doubt this wasn't a landing, but a full-on crash.

The ship impacted with the ground, throwing everybody forward as it screeched the length of the landing pad, the sound almost deafening as they all waited for the ship to finally stop.

She was pretty sure they took out a lookout tower along the way...

Finally, the ship jolted one last time, jostling everyone in their seats as they all processed that they'd stopped moving and weren't dead.

Obi-Wan swept some stray hair out of his face with a grin.

"Another happy landing."

*****************************************

"General Du'ahn."

Zelina paused, turning to see Gambit standing just before the columns of the Senate building, helmet under his arm as he stood at attention, waiting for her to acknowledge him.

"Excuse me," she said apologetically to Bail Organa and Anakin, giving Anakin a small smile as she turned to leave him at the mercy of the Senate for war business.

She couldn't help it—she had been willing to suffer through the politics after the Chancellor's rescue with him, but duty was now calling her elsewhere.

Zelina made her way over to Gambit, waving a hand dismissively. "At ease, Gambit, you know I don't care for all that formality."

Gambit relaxed, a small smile slipping across his face. "I know, General. But since it's the Senate, I figured I should stick to the formalities for appearance's sake."

"Smart. I take it you arrived recently?"

"Not long before the attack, ma'am."

"And the prisoners?"

Gambit frowned. "Being transferred to maximum security, soon."

Zelina's eyebrows rose substantially. "Maximum security? What for? Did something happen?"

Gambit shook his head. "They're being charged with treason against the Republic."

"You're kidding me."

"I'm afraid not."

"They're Separatist Civilians, not soldiers in their army--or Republic Citizens, for that matter."

"Its all a bunch of political nonsense, if you ask me, General. They have actual Separatists to make an example out of instead of clankers, and they're branding all of them as guerilla soldiers who attacked us left and right as we valiantly tried to save Republic citizens and soldiers," Gambit explained bitterly.

"They saw an army marching towards their village and tried to protect it. And let's not forget what happened later."

"They're not reporting that part, ma'am. They've already been villainized, and the propaganda has already spread across Coruscant. Their transfer is actual public knowledge."

Now she was worried. "They do realize how stupid that is, right? Protesters might be the least of our worries."

"I know, ma'am. That's why I came to tell you. I figured you should know what was happening."

"So I can try and do something about it."

"Well, that part's entirely up to you, ma'am," Gambit said, a small smile on his face.

"Please, you knew I'd jump right into the middle of it."

Gambit's smile faded slightly. "Just...be careful when you do, General. This one is...very politically charged."

"I know...Oh, I hate politics."

"We all do."

Zelina took a moment to look out over the Senate district of Coruscant, shaking her head. "When's the move?"

"Two days time."

"So, if I want to see them, it has to be soon. Got it. You've done your duty, Gambit, you and the others can relax. The rest of the 105th will be back as soon as they take Ruusan's Capital."

Gambit snapped a salute—probably for show, as there were a couple of senators passing nearby—his hand coming near his new Idiot's Array tattoo. "See you around, General."

Zelina nodded, watching him walk away with a small sigh. She liked the tattoo—all the members of the 105th who had their chips removed had gotten tattoos on their head to hide the scars, the story being that her elite troops were marking themselves proudly, or something along those lines.

Gambit had the Idiot's Array, Nex a Nexu, Var a Varactyl, Bruiser a thermal detonator.

Damn Cruiser had nearly made her cry with his, a Greater Krayt Dragon rearing its head and roaring, in honor of their general, based off the necklace always around her neck to this very day.

Cruiser, on her order, had told Captain Rex about their discovery:  that Fives hadn't been as insane as he was portrayed to the Republic, that removing the chips hadn't had any effect on them from what they could see, and how Zelina didn't trust the chips, especially with how much effort went into hiding them. Considering she hadn't been approached by anyone wanting to punish her for having some of her men remove their chips, she assumed that Rex kept the secret, and hoped he'd acted on the information, maybe even spread it to some of the other members of the 501st.

She didn't know, and she wasn't about to risk it and start asking around. That information was best kept close to her chest.

As for the business with the Separatist prisoners...well, she was going to have to do something about that. They were citizens, and did not deserve to be thrown to the wolves of the public simply to satisfy some of the roaring unrest coming from the Republic regarding how long this blasted war was lasting.

Zelina rubbed at her temples, turning back to the Senate building to head within. Maybe she could find Padmé and recruit her help with this. She'd go to Satine, too, but the poor woman probably had her hands full with Mandalore, since that was a hot battleground right now. From what she'd heard, the conflict was fierce, especially if it involved Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Maul.

Of course, now it was just Ahsoka, Rex, and Maul. She didn't like the thought of Anakin's former apprentice without any Jedi backup against Maul, but she also knew Ahsoka could hold her own.

And Satine...no doubt knowing peaceful Mandalore had turned into a warzone was tearing her apart. She felt for her friend. She definitely had to see Satine. Not to ask for Satine's help, but to offer her own, however she could.

Zelina had hardly passed into the shadow of the Senate building's columns when she was stopped yet again, this time buy a strong hand gripping her arm and pulling her aside.

She almost attacked to defend herself, but she was stopped first by the thought that they were in the Senate building and, while possible, the chance of her being attacked was very low. Not to mention she was being pulled aside, not strangled or stabbed or anything like that.

Lastly, she saw it was Anakin.

"Anakin, what—" she started to say, but was cut off as he grabbed her in a very unexpected hug and spun her around, a grin on his face. "What—"

"Luke," Anakin said simply, that huge smile somehow brightening. Zelina was only further confused. She needed more context then the name of Anakin's future son, needed other words to tell her what about Luke had garnered this reaction.

Did he have a vision himself or something?

"Anakin, what about Luke?" she asked in confusion, noticing Padmé making her way towards them from where she'd been hidden moments ago, most likely with Anakin.

Risky, rendezvousing in the shadow of the Senate building. Then again, Anakin had been growing restless about keeping his relationship with Padmé secret.

Anakin held Zelina at arm's length, a hand on both arms as he met her gaze with an almost...glow, about him.

"Zelina, Padmé's pregnant. Luke's coming."