decisions and discussions

Afir Kuay-Li'in and Obi-Wan Kenobi had been hunched over for a good long while, drawing in the dirt with sticks. It was time to ante up and get moving.

Apparently the general thought so, too - - finally. "Okay, then," he nodded, standing.

The woman rose beside him. It always surprised Rex when he saw her beside someone else. He thought of her as tiny, delicate. And while her bone structure certainly wasn't that of a Boglian, she was no shrinking violet. In her slightly heeled boots she stood nearly as tall as Kenobi, who was eyeball-to-eyeball with most of the clones. It was especially apparent when she drew herself up, like now, as though preparing for battle or steeling herself for some internal decision. Still, her bones were finely wrought and no one could deny that she had an air of fragility about her. Ladylike, he decided. A jedi princess if ever there was one. Apprenticed to the council from what he understood - - a first in the order. Petted by Mace Windu and Ki Adi Mundi and even Yoda himself.

"It's settled?" she asked suspiciously. "No arguments, no conditions, you're seeing my point and admitting I'm right?"

"Absolutely," the red-headed man agreed cheerfully. Rex wanted to warn the girl not to trust him as far as she could spit - - throwing being out of the question seeing as to how those jedi force-pushed people around like the very bloomin' wind. "The target bears watching. As do several others. We'll just round you up a squad of men and you can quietly go about checking it out."

Her eyes narrowed. Her jaw clenched. "I'm not taking a squad of Anakin's men on what might very possibly be an ambush. I'll go alone and see what I can find out. Too many boots create too much chance of being found out if there is a presence to be discovered."

"No. You'll be properly escorted so that if there is a real threat you've adequate fire power to take care of it. I'll not have you wandering around a hostile planet by yourself."

"It's not your battlefront. You're hopping aboard a cruiser as soon as you decide we're done here!"

"Exactly - - otherwise I'd go with you or do it myself - - with a squad of my own men, Afir."

"It's really up to Anakin," she told him, lifting her brows. She managed to look down at him despite the three inches he had on her.

"Anakin?" Kenobi asked.

The clones around them were hard pressed not to laugh when the younger man looked up and feigned horror.

"Oh, no, Master. You are not pulling me into this. I'll never win, either way. If I side with you, she tells on me to the council. If I side with her, you remind me about it for the rest of my life."

"It's probably a death march for a group of any size, Anakin," Afir scolded. "You cannot condemn your men-"

"Begging your pardon, but we've trained to move careful. If all you're talking is a squad, that's only eight men, Master," Rex told her.

She turned her wrathful gaze on him. He met it head-on, fighting a grin. He liked the sight of her riled.

"It could very possibly turn into a suicide mission. There's no evidence of the Separatists having an ongoing presence on this planet. But they left too quickly, too easily for me to swallow. It's a hunch. And if it's correct, it could mean getting killed. Just to prove a point."

"This whole war's just to prove somebody else's point to my way of thinking," Rex told her. "It's what we do. It'd be an honor to escort you, though. We'd never shirk the responsibility or the danger."

"Excellent," Kenobi announced. "It's settled then. To minimize the guilt you seem intent on feeling, let's have a show of hands." He raised his voice and let his gaze take in the surrounding troops. "Master Afir has a task of some considerable danger. Or it may be a dead bantha race. Any volunteers?"

Every hand shot up. She rolled her eyes.

"No, Obi-Wan."

His hands came up and he scrubbed at his face. "What do you want?"

"Freedom fighters," she answered immediately. "Patriots. Volunteers from the planet we're on so that I can set up a resistance, a network to seek out and destroy the Separatists because of a moral inability to do otherwise. I think a hundred individuals should do it here. The number will vary from planet to planet."

"Impossible. I'll let you gather volunteers. But they'll be from my ranks. Possibly Anakin's or Ki's. But you'll not be left unguarded with every possibility that the people you're recruiting are in fact double agents."

"If I can get some proof tomorrow it may be a moot point."

"Indeed," he said drily. "Indeed."

Rex decided the matter, smiling broadly. "X squad, form on me. The rest of you…general's orders."

Kenobi embraced Afir, then Anakin, both with great gusto - - ending with a smacking kiss on the forehead for each. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do," he warned the young man before he swung onto his waiting swoop bike.

Anakin reached out to shake Rex's hand. "Take care of her. If anything happens to her on a planet I'm occupying I'll never get a seat on the council," he joked. Afir winked at him. "May the force be with you."

"May the force be with you."