The two days came and went. Obi-Wan briefed them on the mission. They were to travel to Bespin, where there was an orphanage set up for children who had lost family during the war. Lately, they had lost contact with the orphanage and sent a few clones to investigate. Those clones had never reported in once they entered the planet's atmosphere. The Jedi were being sent to go in and investigate.
Kayla met Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka in the hangar bay. They boarded the starship and Ahsoka took the opportunity to show Kayla around as the two of them tried to stay out of the way. Anakin and Obi-Wan stayed at the helm.
While Anakin piloted the craft and got them safely into hyperspace, Obi-Wan found his thoughts wandering. He thought about the conversation he'd had with Kayla only a couple of days ago. While he understood and didn't fully agree with her philosophy, he also didn't want to casually dismiss it as too radical. He was also painfully aware of his own biases concerning his opinion of her. She was intelligent and open to constructive criticism, at least from him. She trusted him enough to share her past experiences and her ideas concerning the Force openly with him, even though she knew how different it was from Jedi training. He knew this meant that she trusted him to take her seriously and not to dismiss those ideas outright. She was trying her best to fit in more by accepting his advice concerning her wardrobe and attitude. She also wasn't afraid of working in the hangar and helping out when possible, which had already started earning her the respect of the clones. Aside from that, he had to admit that he generally liked being around her. He enjoyed it when she took his arm. He also enjoyed looking into her expressive brown eyes, much like the other day when he helped her to stand. He found himself absentmindedly staring at them, noting that they had a light to them that was reflected in her personality, while he also found her staring back. It was perhaps a more intimate moment than they should have had, but neither of them seemed bothered by it, nor cared that it was in full view of anyone else at the time.
"Master…" He was so lost in his own thoughts that it barely registered that Anakin was talking to him, "Master!" This time, Anakin raised his voice and snapped his fingers at the other Jedi.
Obi-Wan gave him an annoyed look and responded, "No need for all that, I'm right here."
Anakin chuckled, "And yet, by the smile on your face and the way you're stoking that beard of yours, you're really a million miles away, Master."
Obi-Wan hadn't realized he'd been smiling while he thought about her. He quickly furrowed his brow and straightened in his seat.
"Thinking about our new recruit?" Anakin asked it as a question, but had a teasing lilt to his voice.
Obi-Wan shrugged and offered, "Hoping she can handle the mission."
Anakin smiled at his old master, not buying his explanation, "Right. You know as well as I do that she should be more than able to handle it."
Obi-Wan furrowed his brow, "She should, but all we have to go on is her word. This is actually a fairly important test, don't you think?"
Anakin rolled his eyes, "If you say so, Master." He couldn't help the smirk on his face.
Obi-Wan sighed and thought about the mission itself to get his mind off of where it really wanted to go, "Why would the Separatists pursue an orphanage, though? How does that help them at all?"
"Well, it got us to come out here, didn't it?"
"You think it's a trap?"
"Isn't it always?"
Obi-Wan nodded, "Good point." Maybe Kayla would see more than a few battle droids after all.
After proceeding to the planet, they signaled the orphanage to land and received no reply. They landed there regardless and disembarked. Nobody from the facility came out to meet them.
They proceeded to the doors at the far end of the landing platform. The doors didn't allow entry. There was also no panel on that side of the door that R2 could tap into to obtain entry.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Kayla said as she activated her lightsaber and started cutting through the door. It was the first time Anakin and Ahsoka had seen Kayla's lightsaber's blade. Despite thinking of Kayla as a friend, the bright red color caused them to glance uneasily at each other. Obi-Wan picked up on their uneasiness and whispered to them, "Most Blackguard have red lightsabers. It's traditional, if nothing else."
"You knew about this?" Anakin asked.
Obi-Wan sighed and said, "Of course I did. I was holding it for her until the Council approved her having it again. I…may have activated it, once…out of curiosity."
"You could have warned us, you know."
"I didn't see the point."
Kayla stopped halfway through cutting into the door, sighed, turned around and said, "It's a red lightsaber. Yes, I made it, and yes, I know what I had to do to get it that way. If one of you Jedi would be so kind to carry on this conversation later and help me get through this door, I would be most grateful."
Anakin chuckled and said, "But, you're doing so well on your own."
Obi-Wan gave him an annoyed look, "Anakin…" he said in chastisement. He activated his own lightsaber and started cutting on the other side. Kayla nodded her thanks and continued cutting.
Once they were done, they pushed the middle of the door through it and stepped inside. The facility was operating on emergency power.
Anakin and Ahsoka each activated their own lightsabers to use as a light source.
"Proceed with caution, but we should get to the nursery and living areas first. Our main objective at this point should be finding the children."
Kayla nodded and said, "Agreed." Obi-Wan realized that, due to her previous status in the Blackguard, she was probably more accustomed to giving orders than taking them, and even afterward, had admitted to preferring to work alone.
She must've caught the furrowing of his brow and his uptick in slight annoyance, though, because she said, "That is…Forgive me, General Kenobi. I seem to have already forgotten my place."
Obi-Wan smirked, "You're fine, Kayla. Happy to see that you agree with me."
Kayla blushed and said, "Of course, General Kenobi."
They made their way to the nursery without incident. They found the cribs warm and the babies still within them, seemingly unharmed.
"They know we're here," Anakin commented.
Obi-Wan nodded, "We still need to see about the other children. Someone should probably stay here with the babies, though."
Ahsoka volunteered, "I will. I'll check each of them to be sure they aren't hurt, Masters." Kayla smiled at her.
While Ahsoka carried out her plan, the other three made their way to the living quarters. They passed a panel in a hallway that R2 might be able to tap into.
Obi-Wan addressed the little droid, "R2, can you tell us what we're looking at so that we're not going into this blind?"
R2 tapped into the wall access and got to work. He brought up a holographic projection of the facility.
"Where are the other children?" Kayla asked.
R2 highlighted a section at the far bottom of the facility.
"That's a control room," Obi-Wan said, "Not the living quarters. And what about the missing clones?"
R2 beeped to indicate that there were no signs of them on the facility at all.
"Any droids that we should be aware of?"
R2 highlighted several areas of the map between their current position and the control room.
"Lovely," Anakin said.
Kayla asked, "What about a log or journal entry, R2?" Looking at Anakin and Obi-Wan, she explained, "This is a facility with children and babies. They require looking after, so maybe their caretakers made an entry of some sort to explain what happened here."
"For that matter, where are the caretakers?" Anakin asked.
Obi-Wan looked at the map, "Let's make our way to that control room. I have a feeling at least some of our questions will be answered there."
The three of them, along with R2, cautiously proceeded. Anakin called his padawan on his comlink and updated her on their status. She also updated them, explaining that she'd moved all the babies into a protected area so that she could both keep an eye on them and more easily defend them, if necessary. A few battle droids had come through the area, but nothing too worrisome yet.
With the first group of droids their group encountered, Obi-Wan and Anakin were about to take the lead and attack, when Kayla used the force to pull them all together, five total, and crush them into one heap that landed in a pile of sparking electronics and left the faint smell of ozone in the air.
Obi-Wan smirked a little and asked, "Are you trying to impress me?"
She smiled back, shrugged, and asked, "Is it working?"
Anakin simply rolled his eyes and shook his head.
The next group of droids were a combination of destroyer droids, battle droids, and super battle droids. That group required a little more teamwork, but the three of them had no problem defeating the droids and continued forward.
Eventually, they got to a corridor, the far end of which was the door to the control center.