(A/N) Thanks for all of the support on the last chapter, you all! I'm glad you enjoyed it! This one uses one of my favorite lines from the actual Kadavo episodes, so I was pretty excited about that. More exciting things to come! Please R and R as always!
Ashoka led the way out the prison, through winding halls that were littered with stained glass. In the distance, Anakin could still see the swerving cannons, and the Mandolorians, diligently evading fire as they took their time. "Take out the cannons, Ashoka." She nodded, taking off running as he and Rex came into the field, their ship in sight.
He looked over at Rex, who shifted Count Dooku's weight farther up on his shoulder. The Sith was still heavily unconscious, but that made him entirely dead weight on the malnourished Captain. Rex looked like hell. He was thinner, obviously, some of his muscle mass gone, also smeared with dirt, his hair grown out and matted with blood. His front was striped red form carrying Obi-Wan through the prison, and there was a thick layer of dirt that had settled and smeared into his skin, coloring an old scar where he had been shot on a wayward mission.
Rex noticed Anakin looking at him and tried to give him a smile, but his eyes went down to Obi-Wan and it turned into more of a sickened, angry grimace. Anakin didn't blame him, Obi-Wan felt almost weightless in his arms, slick to hold on to. He hadn't even coughed, as he had been doing earlier, he hadn't moved at all. If it wasn't for the shallow breaths Anakin could see moving his chest, now purple and black with bruising under all of his cuts, he might have thought he was dead.
"Sir." Rex's voice jerked his head up and he looked ahead. Ashoka had gotten to one of the towers, he watched as the final bits of it exploded, followed quickly by the one next to it, and the one following that. He tried a smile that wouldn't come, and quickened his pace to return to the ship. "Sir, who is that?"
He looked up ahead at their ship. Rex hadn't been talking about Ashoka, instead he saw the lithe, angular form of Queen Miraj standing at the base of the loading ramp. She must have gotten out of her chains. She walked towards them, her fingers wrapped around a comlink.
"I was wondering when you would be returning, Skywalker." She almost purred at him. Her eyes swept over the small party, taking in Rex and Dooku with raised eyebrows, Anakin with a glittery smile before her eyes settled on Obi-Wan. To a normal being, the state he was in, mangled, beaten, broken, would have elicited horror, sickness, anger, rage, something strong and unidentifiable. But as Anakin watched, her feline features twisted into a cruel smile, and her eyes shone with pride. He remembered how keen she had been on breaking a Jedi, and here it seemed, she might have managed it. "I've been waiting to make a call."
With what seemed like effort, she moved her gaze from Obi-Wan's body back to Anakin's face. "I think my people will be very glad to have me returned and very interested in what you four can offer them." She looked up again at the sound of Ashoka cutting through the clearing, and flicked her tongue over her lips. "I'm not armed, Jedi. I know you can't kill me." She stepped closer to him, looking down again at Obi-Wan. "Besides, you couldn't put him down fast enough to stop me." Ashoka stood, looking at the Queen, her lightsabers drawn. But Anakin knew she couldn't attack her either. And she was right, he couldn't put Obi-Wan down safely in time to stop her.
She placed a long nail on the com button, igniting the tiny screen before her face froze in shock and pain. She gasped, dropping the com and clutching her side. She looked aghast, betrayed as Anakin had felt for the last few minutes. Slowly, she collapsed, her finals breaths leaving her there on the grass of Serreno, choking out before the light left her.
Anakin looked over, in his hand that wasn't balancing Dooku, Rex had one of the droid commando pistols, the end smoking slightly where he had landed a shot in the Queen's side. "I'm no Jedi." The clone said simply, looking down at the woman who had caused all of this misery for him and Obi-Wan. He stepped around her, continuing towards the ship.
Anakin looked down at her body, knowing that he, as a Jedi, should feel some kind of grief at the loss of life. But she had been a slaver. She looked at other the way you might look at meat, and he knew in his heart he could feel nothing but satisfaction. "Should we take her?" Ashoka asked quietly, and Anakin shook his head.
"Leave her here, they will bury her." To him, even that was more than she deserved, but he had other priorities. He stepped up onto the ship ramp, watching as Rex fastened a still unconscious Dooku to the wall of the holding area, putting extra chains on for weight. "We don't have force cuffs, so these will have to hold him until we get to Coruscant." Anakin nodded his agreement.
"Ashoka, set our course for Coruscant. Contact Korkie and let me speak with him. "Ashoka ran towards the cockpit, and seconds later, Anakin heard the engines roaring. "Rex, come with me to the medical area."
The area had dismally few supplies, with a sick twist to his gut, Anakin realized that if all you were hauling were slaves, you wouldn't bother to purchase medical supplies. There was a package of antimicrobial wipes, and two vials of bacta. Rex did manage to find a sheet, and pillow, arranging the medical sleep couch into a makeshift bed where he could lay his master's body gently. With the wipes, he cleaned his face and the blackened wound on his temple. He sealed it with bacta, but it took all they had to cover that. It seemed, however, to change what had become a fitful unconsciousness into an easier sleep, one where he could lay his head more easily on either side, and have it not be so sensitive.
"If oyu don't mind, Sir, now that he's stable, I'm going to shower." The clone had, rifling through some of the supply boxes looking for bacta, found some old clothes and a shower room with actual water.
"Of course, Rex." Anakin nodded, taking a seat in one of the chairs across from Obi-Wan's bedside, watching the man turn slightly and his breathing change from quiet gasps to ragged pulses. The clone nodded and turned to leave. "Rex." He twisted back around. "Thank you, for helping him."
"He saved me, Sir. From a lot of things." When Anakin looked up at him, his captain wouldn't meet his eyes, instead looking at Obi-Wan. "I owe him my life and my honor, Sir. I don't know how to express that."
Anakin knew the feeling he was talking about, knowing that when they returned to the temple and Rex had been medically treated, he would be forced to recant all they had survived to the council. That seemed bitter to Anakin, that the two men who had survived and withstood so much would be forced to re-live it. He bit back at his discontent with the restraint he had left, the Jedi Council remained blissfully ignorant of the threat surrounding them. They were blind and playing into the hands of a trap. He needed to speak with Dooku, but pangs hit him as he thought about it, pangs of guilt for Obi-Wan, who as he watched, turned his head to far to the right and let out a soft groan as it pulled at the torn skin there.
"He wants to speak with you." He heard Ashoka's voice, and Korkie's reply. "We're in the airspace, Master." She held out the Holo-Pad, which Anakin took, the young Mandalorian man looking up at him.
"Thank you, Korkie, for all you and your men have done. We have rescued Master Kenobi and have taken Count Dooku into custody." The man nodded his acknowledgement of the gratitude. Anakin hoped he knew that he was being genuine, when he had said the words, they had sounded robotic, forced. They were reminiscent of the weariness that hung about him.
"You are welcome, Master Jedi." He hesitated. "My Aunt would like to know Master Kenobi's condition." Anakin watched Ashoka's raised eyebrows at the news, she had no idea of the past connection between Obi-Wan and the leader of Mandalore.
"We have limited medical supplies aboard the ship, and his injuries are horrific. We're headed to the Grand Republic Medical Center now, and I have hope he will recover." Again, he couldn't keep the forced tone out of his words, but the man in the hologram seemed troubled by the news just as well.
"The Duchess wants you to know she will be arriving on Coruscant shortly after you do for a meeting with the Senate regarding trade embargos that have been put into place. With your permission, she would like to come and see Master Kenobi in person."
"It's the least we could do," Anakin said, and nodded his agreement. "Thank you, again, Korkie, I hope this isn't the last time we meet."
"Nor I, Master Skywalker. Padawan Tano." Ashoka nodded as well, a smile on her face for her Mandalorian friend, before the comlink darkened.
"We should be there, soon Master. I placed a call to the temple, they have the medical unit ready to accept us in the hangar." Anakin nodded at her, suddenly unable to find suitable words. He was tired, he needed sleep, he needed food, he needed peace, he needed Padme. He was glad his apprentice didn't inquire about the Duchess, he didn't have the energy to explain that relationship to her. He wasn't even sure of what it was himself.
Ashoka left his with his thoughts then, returning to guide them through the airspace that they were swift approaching. He held the Holo-Pad in his hands, feeling the need to call someone, but not having anyone her could speak with. If he called the Council, it would distract from the immediate aid of Obi-Wan, who had still not woken up from his unconscious state, even though they had been gone from the prison for hours. If he called Padme, she would be too concerned about his well-being, especially since the reality of his coming obligation was slowly thickening in front of him. The man he really wanted to talk to was dying, he couldn't burden his apprentice with uncertain knowledge. He was alone, isolated in his own realm of thought.
Obi-Wan stirred, not waking, but twisting onto his side, coughing and sputtering in his sleep. Anakin held his arms, propping him up on his side, making sure the blood that came from him didn't all back into his throat. He wanted to do more, needed to do more. He reached out with the force, finally, for the first time since one of their first days on Zygerria, he felt calming waves of it roll through him. The ceaseless burning that had started since his connection with Dooku had stopped when he had defeated him, and although he could feel the hole in the place that was reserved for his oldest friend, he felt much calmer. He stretched out, willing it to extend past himself and into his master. It did as he willed it, to an extent, only able to reach so far until it hit the protracted fore suppressant, and stopped. But Obi-Wan's coughing stopped and he settled back into a more restful state, leaving unconsciousness and drifting into actual sleep.
He sighed, releasing him. His own exhaustion was palpable, he needed sleep. In the hour they had until they returned to Coruscant, he hoped he might get some. He closed his eyes, hearing Rex turn off the Refresher shower and re-enter the room. Obi-Wan would be fine with the Commander watching him, and Anakin would be only inches away. Sleep hit him like a brick, and he let it pull him down into the first sign of release he'd felt in days.