Slapped aside by a gesture with their free hand, then they begin advancing on her, blade slashing with lethal intent.

- Yeah nope she's got nothing. 'A little help?'

She gets a vague sense of something warm enveloping her -

- And then a tight fist wraps around the Inquisitor's throat, cutting off all blood flow to the brain. 

There's a palpable burst of shock through the Force and the barrage of attacks hitches-

-then stops entirely as the Inquisitor falls, insensate.

Her grip in the Force doesn't let up.

And Leia goes back to getting through the door. (Quickly. There were other Inquisitors chasing her - she was pretty barely keeping ahead of them at points.)

Urgency is definitely warranted. The longer she takes, the more time they have to catch up.

She'd prepared on her way down, as much as she could - collected parts from droids, mentally planned things out. The biggest problem honestly is going to be not blowing herself up, too, but... She can see the shape of this, how the force of the blast should travel up and out...

She isn't fast enough to avoid the next enemy catching up, but, well. She has Fulcrum, even beyond the dying body of their comrade potentially giving them pause. 

She works quickly to jerry-rig a delayed ignition, then stands and spins and hopes Fulcrum has kept her way clear -

Fulcrum has kept her way clear, but from the way the second body is draped right over the first, it doesn't look like they stopped at all before they were forced to.

Not her problem anymore - she's too busy rushing to the nearest turbolift. A quick gesture blasts the wall open just enough she can jump through, free falling down into the depths of the headquarters as the world above her rips itself apart.

Hopefully she has a plan for the turbolift car rising rapidly up the shaft to meet her.

- Is it occupied?

Seems to be!

She slows herself down enough and gets her feet under her so she lands on it with a minor jolt, instead of slamming into it, and starts trying to figure out a way off it.

Well, she could try blasting through the wall, that's a good trick. Problem is she's moving too fast to then get out through the hole...

Her problem with the hole she came in through. 

Meanwhile - a certain ghost is reaching out with the Force to find out who's in that turbolift.

Maybe an Inquisitor? Or, no, as she gets closer...

Someone more familiar than that.

- Fuck - 

She moves to Leia's side. 'That's - ' she catches herself for a stuttering moment - 'the Empress. Get clear. I can't - '

Fuck is right.

'I love you,' she sends, immediately, because she's learned already that sometimes people don't come back from missions, and you can't leave things unsaid. 'I'll do my best.'

Right now...

She crouches - her relative motion is currently that of the turbolift - and launches herself up with the Force, aiming to leap into the broken levels above, closer to the grey sky she can see a growing glimpse of. 

Her ascent is aided by the roof of the car exploding beneath her. Fortunately for Leia, this gives her just enough of a boost to stick the landing on the roof before the turbolift's erstwhile passenger appears.

She's trying not to broadcast this to Leia because she doesn't want to be a distraction - she needs to help Leia survive this, she needs to focus - 

She needs to try - 

'Elesse STOP,' rips into the Force around her once-teacher, a wounded howl. 'Please stop - haven't you destroyed enough of what I love - '

Leia wastes no time in fleeing for the edge of the roof!