Part 2 (2/2)
He looks the dragon in the eye and doesn't even slow down.
If anyone can save Palpatine, Anakin will. Because he's already the best, and he's still getting better. But locked away behind the walls of his heart, the dragon that is his fear coils and squirms and hisses.
Because his real fear, in a universe where even stars can die, is that being the best will never be quite good enough.
Obi-Wan's starfighter jolted sideways. Anakin whipped by him and used his forward att.i.tude jets to kick himself into a skew-flip: facing backward to blast the last of the tri-fighters on his tail. Now there were only vulture droids left.
A lot of vulture droids.
”Did you like that one, Master?”
”Very pretty.” Obi-Wan's cannons st.i.tched plasma across the hull of a swooping vulture fighter until the droid exploded. ”But we're not through yet.”
”Watch this.” Anakin flipped his starfighter again and dived, spinning, directly through the flock of vulture droids. Their drives blazed as they came around. He led them streaking for the upper deck of a laser-scarred Separatist cruiser. ”I'm going to lead them through the needle.”
”Don't lead them anywhere.” Obi-Wan's threat display tallied the vultures on Anakin's tail. Twelve of them. Twelve. ”First Jedi principle of combat: survive.”
”No choice.” Anakin slipped his starfighter through the storm of cannonfire. ”Come down and thin them out a little.''
Obi-Wan slammed his control yoke forward as though jamming it against its impact-rest would push his battered fighter faster in pursuit. ”Nothing fancy, Arfour.” As though the damaged droid were even capable of anything fancy. ”Just hold me steady.”
He reached into the Force and felt for his shot. ”On my mark, break left-now!” The shutdown control surface of his left wing turned the left break into a tight overhead spiral that traversed Obi-Wan's guns across the paths of four vultures-flash flash flash flash -and all four were gone.
He flew on through the clouds of glowing plasma. He couldn't waste time going around; Anakin still had eight of them on his tail.
And what was this? Obi-Wan frowned.
The cruiser looked familiar.
The needle? he thought. Oh, please say you're kidding.
Anakin's starfighter skimmed only meters above the cruiser's dorsal hull. Cannon misses from the vulture fighters swooping toward him blasted chunks out of the cruiser's armor.
”Okay, Artoo. Where's that trench?”
His forward screen lit with a topograph of the cruiser's hull. Just ahead lay the trench that Obi-Wan had led the tri-fighter into. Anakin flipped his starfighter through a razor-sharp wingover ”down past the rim. The walls of the service trench flashed past him as he streaked for the bridge tower at the far end. From here, he couldn't even see the minuscule slit between its support struts.
With eight vulture droids in pursuit, he'd never pull off a slant up the tower's leading edge as Obi-Wan had. But that was all right.
He wasn't planning to.
His c.o.c.kpit comm buzzed. ”Don't try it, Anakin. It's too tight.”
Too tight for you, maybe. ”I'll get through.”
R2-D2 whistled nervous agreement with Obi-Wan.
”Easy, Artoo,” Anakin said. ”We've done this before.”
Cannonfire blazed past him, impacting on the support struts ahead. Too late to change his mind now: he was committed. He would bring his s.h.i.+p through, or he would die.
Right now, strangely, he didn't actually care which.
”Use the Force.” Obi-Wan sounded worried. Think yourself through, and the s.h.i.+p will follow.''''
”What do you expect me to do? Close my eyes and whistle?” Anakin muttered under his breath, then said aloud, ”Copy that. Thinking now.”
R2-D2's squeal was as close to terrified as a droid can sound. Glowing letters spidered across Anakin's readout: ABORT! ABORT ABORT!
Anakin smiled. ”Wrong thought.”
Obi-Wan could only stare openmouthed as Anakin's starfighter snapped onto its side and sc.r.a.ped through the slit with centimeters to spare. He fully expected one of the struts to knock R2's dome off.
The vulture droids tried to follow . . . but they were just a hair too big.
When the first two impacted, Obi-Wan triggered his cannons in a downward sweep. The evasion maneuvers preprogrammed into the vulture fighters' droid brains sent them diving away from Obi-Wan's lasers-straight into the fireball expanding from the front of the struts.
Obi-Wan looked up to find Anakin soaring straight out from the cruiser with a quick snap-roll of victory. Obi-Wan matched his course-without the flourish.
”I'll give you the first four,” Anakin said over the comm, ”but the other eight are mine.”
”Anakin-”
”All right, we'll split them.”
As they left the cruiser behind, their sensors showed Squad Seven dead ahead. The clone pilots were fully engaged, looping through a dogfight so tight that their ion trails looked like a glowing ball of string.
”Oddball's in trouble. I'm going to help him out.”
”Don't. He's doing his job. We need to do ours.”
”Master, they're getting eaten alive over-”
”Every one of them would gladly trade his life for Palpatine's. Will you trade Palpatine's life for theirs?”
”No-no, of course not, but-”
”Anakin, I understand: you want to save everyone. You always do. But you can't.''''
Anakin's voice went tight. ”Don't remind me.”
”Head for the command s.h.i.+p.” Without waiting for a reply, Obi-Wan targeted the command cruiser and shot away at maximum thrust.
The cross of burn-scar beside Anakin's eye went pale as he turned his starfighter in pursuit. Obi-Wan was right. He almost always was.
You can't save everyone His mother's body, broken and b.l.o.o.d.y in his arms-Her battered eyes struggling to open-The touch of her smashed lips-I knew you would come to me ... I missed you so much . . .
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