Chapter 10-
Anakin and pain were practically on a first name basis. Really the two of them were old childhood friends. Anakin had taken every beating he'd ever been dealt he'd taken stoically. Every beating-that is-except this one. Ray was delivering the worst beating Anakin had ever felt.
"Feel like talking yet, Jedi?" Ray demanded as he yanked Anakin head up from the floor by his hair.
"You hit like my padawan before we taught her how to throw a real punch." Anakin sassed. It probably would've come across as more threating if his mouth were not full of blood and were his lips not swollen. This also affected the coherency of his statement. It came off sounding, "You hif like my padawapghf beforg we fought her how to throw a realght punch."
Ray snorted. "Please, your padawan still can't hit for anything." Apparently Ray was fluent in mumblings by tortured prisoners. Who knew?
"I wonder if we could loosen your tongue by bringing you someone to talk to." Ray mused. "Yes I think that would be good. "
Anakin shook his head. "Never talk." Great now I sound like an angry toddler. Ray pressed his comm.
"Bring me the clone." Anakin felt his gut tighten. He liked all of his men, they were good guys. Brave, loyal, and honorable every single one of 'em. But when it came down to choosing between one of them and keeping the information that the republic would need, it wasn't a contest. They understood that, he understood that. It sucked. But it was necessary. Anakin closed his eyes and tries to ignore the twisting feeling in his gut. He supposed he should be grateful, Ray was just watching instead of beating him up. He heard the cell door slid open and the sound of a body being tossed to the floor next to him.
"Hey sir." A familiar voice muttered. Anakin opened his eyes and almost wished he hadn't. It was Rex on the floor with him but it wasn't. He looked awful (and that was putting it nicely) Both of Rex's eyes were bruised and blooded. One looked like it was swollen shut. There were knife cuts all around his body, but the worst looked to be about 4 inches long on his cheek. It would defiantly need stiches. His trademark blond buzz cut was caked with mud and more blood. The upper half of his armor was gone (which was a shame since Anakin knew how much work Rex had put into the paint.) His torso was covered in blood, way too much of it for it to belong just to him. Ray and The seppie who had dragged Rex in just leaned against the wall along with Ray as if they were waiting for a touching reunion or an argument. They wouldn't get either since both their comms bleeped and Cia's voice filled the room.
"Time to move the groups. Tie up whatever you're doing and be here in less than 5."
"Taz good buddy, they're tied up already, you just wanna leave 'em on the floor?" Ray asked without taking his eyes of the two men on the floor.
"Sure." He replied. They both casually strolled out of the room as if they were leaving a party and not a torture cell.
"Rex, you're looking well." Anakin began. Rex just groaned. "You know what this reminds me of?" Anakin continued. "One of our first missions together. The one on Fersmont." Anakin thought he heard Rex laugh.
"Wasn't that the one where our ship got shot down and we had to trek 5 miles through jungle to get to the closest base which happened to belong to the clankers to we had to scape them all then steal a ship?"
"No that was Demese. Fersmont was the one where Obi-wan got captured and we had to walk through 7 miles to go rescue him."
"Why would that remind you of this?" Rex whispered.
Anakin gave a sad half smile. "I'm not sure. You doing ok?"
Rex curled up as far into a ball as his bonds would let him. "I'm fine sir, are you alright?"
"Rex you're not fine. Whose blood is that?"
Rex bit his lip and looked away. "Frisk's" He murmured. "They carved him up and, and he was already dead but-" Rex's breath caught in his throat. "I just can't, sir, I'm sorry."
"It's ok, you're ok." Anakin attempted to soothe him. "We'll get out of this in one piece. Obi-wan's tracked us down every time we've gotten into trouble. This'll be no different."
"Are you ok sir?"
"I'm still breathing. Have you seen any of the others?"
"Yeah," Rex smiled. "Commander Tano's fine, or as fine as one can be in this place. Everyone else is too. They're going to kill me as soon as they get back so I should tell you everything we know."
"I'm not letting them hurt you, but some new information would be nice."
"Thanks sir, anyway. We're in the interrogation building of a prisoner of war camp. The entire 501 is here, as well as a bunch of other guys from various legions. They're on our side. The head separatist here seems to be a woman named Cià. If I had to guess I'd say her second in command is a man named Taz. They may or may not be romantically involved. It's hard to tell. Her muscle is the delightful Ray who was interrogating you when Taz dragged me in. Their newbie is young and eager to prove himself but also slightly sympathetic. I think his name's Jif. And I don't think these guys have read the Mandalore Code, which forbids torture and conscripted labor."
"Conscripted labor? You guys? I can barely get you all out bed on a good day." Anakin laughed. But deep down he was troubled. The thing that made the 501 so special, the thing that bonded them all together was a common stoke of rebelliousness. Getting his men to do anything they didn't want to, be it turning in their patrol reports on time or making their beds, was impossible. If they lost that spark, they were truly lost.
"Yeah surprisingly guns at our heads are a great motivator."
"I'll have to remember that. You guys don't happen to have an escape plan do you?"
"None that I'm aware of sir. The others might've come up with something. I haven't seen them for a day or so."
"What about the other clones here? Any escape plans you heard rumors about?"
"None sir, they say it isn't possible. They're much more focused on sabotage."
"I hope Obi-wan gets here soon." Anakin sighed. "When I actually need him he's never there."
"Or General Plo, or General Fisto. Really anyone showing up would be good." Rex added.
"We need to make a plan. We probably don't have long." Anakin mused.
"Sir with al due respect what kind of a plan can we come up with? We're both tied up. The only thing we can do is wait and hope is there in a good mood."
"Come on Rex, have a little faith. There's a giant table full of knives. If we can knock a knife off I bet I can use it to pick our cuffs. Once we get free we can hobble around until we find a transmitter then get a signal to…someone and be back here before they notice."
"I'm game. How do we get the knife of the table?"
"Normally I would just use the force but these cuffs are force restrictive and that's messing with me. The shock collars not helping either."
Rex sat up on his knees and almost immediately doubled over in pain.
"I was not nice enough to Cody when he had broken ribs." He muttered. Anakin laughed.
"The real reason we all got captured-karma needed to get you."
"Ha-ha." Rex huffed as he stood on shaky legs.
"Lean against the wall." Anakin suggested. Rex glanced down at the table spread before him.
"What kind of knife do you need sir? Depressingly, there are a lot on here."
"Longer and sharper the better. Or you know what, a needle would work even better. "
"Well there are lots of those on here." Rex picked one up and tossed it to the floor near Anakin. "I'm going to admire the irony that we're using their tools to escape."
"You've been spending to much time with Obi-wan." Noted Anakin as he fiddled with the needle in his cuffs. "He makes lectures like that out of everything."
"So I've heard."
"Almost got it…almost got it... Got it!" Anakin happily exclaimed. He bent to undo the cuffs around his ankles.
"I never thought that would work." Rex grinned.
"Still got a way's to go but it's a start." Anakin agreed. "Let me at yours."
Rex held out his wrists. It took Anakin 23 seconds to get them off.
"A new record!" He exclaimed with a certain glee in his voice.
"Nice sir." Rex muttered.
"Let's go." Anakin ordered as he pulled Rex's arm over his shoulder.
"Don't need to tell me twice."
The duo limped out of the cell and down the hall.
"We have no idea where were going do we?" Rex asked a few minutes in.
"Sort of." Replied Anakin. "Communications will be on the highest level. How many other buildings are there?"
"Not many other big ones. Here, a place I think the guards sleep, a mess 'hall' this is by far the tallest. "
"Then we're in the right building."
"Why can't they ever decorate their creepy dark hallways with maps?"
"Back. Droid." Anakin ordered. He slid out from behind a corner with Rex in tow.
" We're good, I don't know but it sure would make breaking out a lot easier."
"Left sir, there's a turbo-lift."
"Good catch."
The turbo-lift took them to the top of the building, which was clearly a communications center.
Anakin slid in to the control panel.
"Our tech is so much cooler." He commented. Rex rolled his eyes. Anakin grinned.
"I don't know why no one is here but let's go with it. I'm going to message Obi-wan."
"Tell Cody I said hi." Requested Rex.
Anakin tapped at the keyboard for a few minutes.
"Got it. Let's go."
"I'm don't want to go back to that cell."
"I know buddy. I don't either. We can do thins though. We'll be ok." Getting back was far easier than expected. Anakin could sense Rex's fear about going back. What the seps had done to Rex to make him so afraid Anakin didn't want to know. Anakin and Rex slid down to the floor on the cell. All in all the escapade had taken roughly 5 minutes.
Anakin picked up the same needle he had used to pick their cuffs. "Turn your head."
"Why?" Asked Rex. But he did as he was instructed.
"I'm going to screw up your shock collar so if they try to turn it on it won't work."
"Nice." Rex said with a tone of admiration in his voice.
"You still have your belt?"
"Yes sir."
"Take the needle with you. You're going to get put back the others eventually. Do the same to their collars. It's pretty simple. Just disconnect the red and blue wires from the motor while the needle is in the motor-hole. Ahsoka knows how to do it. If Obi-wan's late that should buy you guys some peace of mind. Fake it if you have to."
"Will do sir."
"Alright I've got put the cuffs back on now."
"Do it sir." It took Anakin 34 seconds to get Rex's cuffs back on and 45 seconds for his own.
"I'm slower than usual." He commented.
"You just haven't practiced in awhile." Rex soothed. Anakin handed him the needle. Rex pulled a protein bar off his belt.
"I took a page from Echo's book and packed extra. Want some?"
Anakin wanted to protest but his stomach growled in protest.
"Sure. I miss hanging out together when we're not getting shot at."
"The days of smuggling beer and sneaking junk food." Rex reminisced as he broke the bar and gave half to Anakin.
"Thanks. We should eat quickly. They'll be back soon."
"Don't go getting nervous on me sir."
Anakin was about to respond when they heard footsteps in the hall. Rex shoved his protein bar in his mouth in one swift move. Anakin took it slower and did it in 2 bites.
Ray and Taz walked into the cell looking like they wanted to kill someone. Bad news for me. Thought Rex.
"So we made a mistake, big deal." Ranted Ray.
"It's not our fault these ones have high tolerance." Taz agreed.
"It was time to push ages ago. Cià's going soft." Ray muttered.
"Ray, we need to knock them out now." Taz reminded him. Rex sent a panicked look toward Anakin. Anakin responded with a "stay-calm" nod.
"Fine." Ray grumbled as he pulled his taser of his belt.
"We'll have fun in a few hours." Taz teased him while he took up his own taser. "Group is always fun."
"It'll be a group of 2." Complained Ray. "Cià will be on point. All we get to do is stand in the back."
Rex glanced at Anakin. Should we fight? He mouthed.
Anakin lifted his head ever so slightly. To anyone else it meant that Anakin was trying to get more comfortable as he watched the drama unfold before him. To anyone n the 501, it meant attack on my signal.
Rex nodded. Rematch time. Taz and Ray both struck without warning. One minute they were having a lovely conversation about their boss, the next they were both flying at their captives, tasers brandished. Anakin flipped himself up and over Ray. He landed on his feet and got his arms around Ray's neck. Pulling the cuffs tight in a choke hold, he didn't even need to look over to know Rex had done the same substituting a roll for the flip.
"Now what?" Rex asked Anakin.
"Now you go to sleep." Taz answered. He grappled for something off his belt while using one hand to soften Rex's cuffs at his neck.
"Night night." Ray roared as he plunged something into Anakin's stomach.
Anakin met Rex's eyes and had just enough time to mouth "Be strong buddy." Before they both hit the dirt.
Net update will probably be in two days providing no ducks decide to remake "The Great Escape", no neighborhood kids throw pebbles at my window asking if I want to play manhunt in the woods, and no siblings beg for fro-yo. Shoutouts to Lux's Sister, AutumnLeaves03, and DarthTopaz for their reviews. Rewiewers get shoutouts and eternal gratitude.