Hi everyone! I know it's been ages since I last updated, but I promise that I haven't forgotten this story. It was just a really bad case of writers block AND I lost my muse ;_; I repeat. I have not forgotten this story and I will be continuing it! Now, Onward!
Chapter1
Obi-wan felt awful. He didn't have much to complain about after killing a guard, but that didn't mean he felt he deserved (and not limited to) getting whipped, beaten up, kicked and spit on. Force, these people overreacted way too much. Obi-wan caught Rex's sympathetic glances as he was lugged back to his post and had a shovel thrust into his hands. With one last slap and kick, the guards wandered off to terrorize the other slaves. Looking at the sea of coal before him in distaste, he hefted the shovel in his hands and stabbed it into the coal, scooping up a sizable pile of the black rock and heaving it into the overly large carrier. As he stretched to dump the coal into the carrier, he felt something crack in his back. Wincing as he attempted to discreetly double over in pain, Obi-wan concluded that he was having a very bad day. By the Force, when he got his hands on Anakin, he would make absolutely certain that his former padawan would suffer through a 10 hour lecture and two- no- three months of rigorous training at the very least.
Overcome by a sudden bout of unJedi-like fury, he drove his shovel deep into the pile of coal in front of him and was rewarded with a loud crack from his body. Obi-wan screwed his eyes shut, leaning heavily on his shovel, trying to think happy thoughts to somewhat reduce his pain. Steeling himself for was he concluded was the shittiest job in the universe, he (gently, so that he wouldn't hurt himself further) stabbed the coal with his shovel and dumped it in the carrier, imagining that it was Agruss' face, for the rest of the day.
Obi-wan woke on his concrete slab the next day in pain. He hissing out a string of rainbow-coloured words under his breath, a scowl plastered on his face. The Master Jedi rolled off his slab onto the floor,stumbling and nearly falling on his face because he had forgotten the height of his bunk off the floor.
Silently cursing under his breath, Obi-wan bit his tongue as he was violently prodded by one of the guards for his clumsiness. It took all his willpower to not scream profanities and force push the guard into the wall. Instead, he settled for giving the guard his most deadly death glare... Which resulted in him getting beaten and electrocuted for insubordination.
This was turning out to be the worst day of his entire life.
Obi-wan tried his best to behave throughout the rest of the day, not wanting to be subject to more beatings; his body was so sore from his morning beating and the one the previous day it was a miracle that he was even standing. Leaning heavily on his shovel he took a few deep breaths, sending Rex a reassuring look when the Captain looked at him worriedly.
He was forced to resume his shovelling a few seconds later, albeit at a slightly slower pace, lest he get yet another beating for laziness. Wiping the sweat off his brow, Obi-wan was about to stab the mountain of coal when a commotion was heard outside the room's doors
He stilled as he heard the guards shouting, followed by loud clanging sounds. The room's occupants stopped working in favour of looking at the doors when the sounds were suddenly cut off. A guard took notice of the lack of activity and yelled at the slaves, cracking his whip.
"BACK TO WORK YOU MAG-"
The Zygerrian was cut off by the doors slamming open and a figure being thrown in. The figure slid across the floor towards the guard and suddenly leapt at him as it approached. There was a flurry of movement and the guard's mangled corpse was lying on the floor, blood pooling around it.
The room erupted into panic, the slaves dropping their shovels and backing away in fear and the guards activating their electrostaffs and whips and advancing on the figure. Obi-wan strained to see what was going on through the clouds of dust that had been kicked up by the flurry of movement.
He yelled in surprise as he was tackled by Rex, just as an electrostaff flew past him and embedded itself in the wall behind him. Giving Rex a grateful nod and a pat on the shoulder, smiling as the Captain helped him sit up.
It seemed like the figure had lost the fight and Obi-wan winced as he watched it being cornered, whipped and stomped on by the Zygerrians. Just as the figure was beaten into submission, Agruss entered the room with his henchmen trailing behind him. Coming to a stop in front of the subdued figure, he motioned to the guards, and they roughly hoisted the figure onto its knees in front of him.
"This here is a new slave," Agruss said addressing the slaves.
"As you can see, it has not been properly broken in. Yet." The obese Zygerrian eyed all the occupants in the room, his gaze hovering over Obi-wan for a second longer than he was comfortable with.
"I expect all of you to show this piece of filth how real slaves behave," he continued.
"If anyone of you makes the slightest mistake..." Agruss said trailing off menacingly. He grabbed an electrostaff from one of the guards, turned it up to its highest setting, and slammed it into the figure's ribs. There were no words to describe the scream that came from the tortured slave. The Colonists whimpered, drawing back from the Zygerrians and Rex and Obi-wan looked on with barely concealed disgust, fury and helplessness.
Satisfied that his point was made, Agruss nodded to the guards and exited the room. A crack of an electrowhip and a yelled threat spurred the slaves back into motion. Obi-wan got to his feet and picked up his shovel and resumed his dreary task, biting back a moan of pain as he grasped the shovel with blistered hands.
His work was interrupted by the guards throwing the new slave onto the pile, a shovel following after. Acting quickly, the Jedi grabbed the shovel just before it made contact with the figure's head, gritting his teeth in pain when his skin was pierced by splinters in the rough wooden shaft of the shovel. Sensing he was going to get another beating for his intervention, he quickly made up an excuse.
"Passed out slaves don't get work done."
His point was logical and completely true, but he ended up getting a beating anyway. Quietly groaning in pain, he got off the floor, with Rex's help, and leaned heavily on his shovel, taking in the newcomer's appearance. She was a dark-skinned human with red hair and three jagged scars over right eye. Her chest heaved with the effort it took to breath and she swallowed as she slowly turned onto her stomach and pushed onto her knees her eyes squeezed shut.
Obi-wan to Rex, the two men gently grasped one of the newcomer's arms each and pulled her upright. The Jedi gently placed the shovel in her hands and the Captain adjusted her grip on the shovel so she would suffer from less blisters. Panting, the newcomer stabbed the pile of coal with her shovel, growling threateningly at an approaching guard, who surprisingly backed off, and dumped a clump of coal into the cart in front of her.
The two men resumed their work, shovelling in a comfortable silence, their gaze occasionally wandering over to the female who still hadn't opened her eyes. A bell rang loudly signalling the end of the shift and the slaves were hereded into the "mess hall" to eat. The newcomer surprisingly stuck with Rex and Obi-wan chewing on her food silently, her flaming hair falling over her face.
Obi-wan tried to scrounge up a few words to say to the female when, to his surprise, Rex beat him to it.
"Name's Rex. What's yours, kid?" The Captain asked the newcomer gruffly. The newcomer swallowed her stale bread.
"Don't have one," she replied shortly, her eyes still closed as she tore off another piece of bread and chewed on it. Obi-wan found himself in envy of the ease with which she ate the hard piece of bread.
"Don't have one or you don't want to tell?" Rex asked the newcomer, casually chewing on his own piece of bread.
"Not everyone is born with a name, dipshit," came the snarky reply, though there was surprisingly little real bite behind the insult, Obi-wan observed. It would seem Rex had made a new friend.
"True," Rex replied in agreement.
"Some people are born with a number."
The statement made the female pause momentarily, before swallowing the remains of her bread. Lifting her head tucking her curtain of hair behind her ear, she cracked her eyes revealing bright, amber orbs, making both men tense at the Sith-like colour of her irises. She took in Rex's appearance slowly, then shifted her gaze to Obi-wan, who fidgeted uncomfortable as he was examined. The Jedi unconsciously relaxed when the female's gaze switched back to the Captain.
"A Trooper and a Jedi," she said slowly with... Was that amusemennt? The corner of her mouth turned up as she looked at the duo.
"How quaint."
Rex gave the female a confused look and Obi-wan withheld a snort at her words. The newcomer's gaze flitted between Obi-wan and Rex before a ghost of a smile passed over her face. Grabbing a dried out piece of fruit that looked like it belong in a toilet bowl, she shoved it into her mouth and swallowed it whole without chewing. Dusting her hands off and wiping licking her lips clean, she manoeuvred herself into a cross legged sitting position and leaned foreward, resting her arms on her thighs.
"Name's Kid," she said nonchalantly. Rex tilted his head and arched his eyebrow.
"I thought you said you didn't have a name," he said with amusement.
"Changed my mind," came the short reply.
"Well, in that case," Obi-wan said cutting in. The Master Jedi gave the newcomer a huge bow- or as huge a bow he could manage with his seated position and bruised body.
"Welcome to Kadavo," he said grandly, as if he were introducing the Supreme Chancelor himself.
Kid gave the Jedi Master a strange look before her shoulders started shaking and her body started to tremble. For the first time in the existance of the Zygerriam slave processing facility on Kadavo, pure, genuine laughter was heard in its halls
Sooo? How was it? Good? Bad? Please do review! I'm jumping on the next chapter as you read! Hopefully, it'll be out by next week :)