"She's not here?"

"No, she was sold and then freed to be wed to a farmer."

"Well I'm guessing you got a location so let's jet, the sooner we get there the sooner you can stop worrying."

Anakin made a face but did not comment on Alec's statement, partly because they could easily banter for a while and time was of the essence and partly because that statement wasn't a lie. So as quickly as he could get them to they arrived at the Lars residence. But the news they received was no better than what they had encountered before. Shmi was missing and had been taken by Tusken raiders no less, setting Anakin into an outward slight panic though they knew inside he was fully freaking out.

Alec placed a hand on his arm saying nothing as Anakin looked at him. Nothing was said between the two before Alec nodded. Anakin did not respond for a minute, mulling over the chances of them being able to make it in time before accepting his offer to come along. While Anakin spoke to Padme, Alec blurred to the ship, grabbing the emergency kit before meeting Anakin once more.

Quickly the two made their way to the speeders and took off, knowing that time was of the essence they rode as fast as the speeders would allow them to. The travel was long and hot but Alec did not complain. On the contrary, at some point it felt nice to be out on a mission. Okay, not a real mission but it was enough like one to be classified one. They were going into enemy territory to retrieve a hostage while being greatly outnumbered. They'd have to be stealthy or they'd be screwed, it was a matter of life and death. So yeah, he considered it a mission, one that had to succeed at any costs.

Upon making it a safe distance from the camp they stopped and hid their speeders, "So what's the game plan? How do we go figuring out which tent she's in?"

"I…I can feel her. She's in great pain." The look on his face made Alec pause before reaching to the pack he had strapped to the speeder, "Don't worry kid, we'll save her and she'll be ecstatic to see you. Now let's move, time is ticking."

With that they sneaked in under the cover of night, Anakin following this feeling while Alec used his enhanced abilities to make sure they avoided those things. Soon enough they made it to the back of the tent and Anakin brought out his light saber, creating an entrance.

"Mom!" came his low response upon seeing her tied and clearly abused. He rushed to her side and began to untie her as Alec took note of her injuries. She was clearly beaten and had been starved by the looks of it, she was completely weak. Anakin laid her down gently, "mom…" the pain in his voice made Alec glance at him as he opened up his pack and began to pull out his equipment, allowing them a moment of privacy.

As much as he wanted to rush them out of there he knew there would be no way for her to travel in the state she was in, and despite the fact that he could not see her injuries underneath the rags she wore he could smell the blood. He would have to work quickly and efficiently so that she would be travel ready as soon as possible because the last thing he wanted was for one of those things to notice them there or her missing and them not be at least a fourth of the way home.

"No, mom!" he cried out and Alec whipped around towards them, realizing that the woman would not make it at this rate.

"Bring her here. Hurry!" But Anakin did not hear him or he was so lost in distraught he was unable to. Realizing this he grabbed the adrenaline needle he had set a side and shoved Anakin away before plunging it into her as Anakin looked on in shock. He pulled it out waiting a moment as he heard her heart give a jump and the rhythm began to beat steadily albeit slowly, "Help me." He whispered. Upon seeing his mother still alive and breathing Anakin snapped out of it and began to tend to her wounds, "She's still weak and will need a blood transfusion by the looks of it." Alec had already pulled the equipment he needed and was inserting the needle into his flesh, allowing it to flow into a blood bag.

"Wait we don't know if you're her blood type!"

"Relax kid, I'm the universal donor. I can donate to anyone, just let me fill this bag and we can give her what she needs."

Anakin looked worried, partly because he was afraid of the idea of giving her his blood might cause a reaction and partly because of how long it was taking for them to get out of there. Despite her condition he would assume that they would have someone make rounds to check up on her.

"Alec…As much as I appreciate this we don't have time!" he hissed.

"I know which is why we'll have to hide somewhere until she's travel ready! We'll find a nice little rock to hide behind while the blood is transferred and then we can jet. But at least we have the blood ready just in case. And get her hydrated as well now that I think about it..."

"Just in case what?" Anakin asked as he had her in his arms while Alec packed everything up, careful to keep the blood bag safe.

If it weren't for his enhanced hearing he probably wouldn't have heard the damn raider as it entered the tent from where they had. Thankfully he reacted in a blur and had tackled the damn thing before it could react, snapping its neck.

"How did you do that?"

Alec shot him a look, "Really kid, you wanna ask that now?"

He shook his head as Alec picked up the blades that were on the raider as the front tent opened, apparently the dead one hadn't been alone.

"Here!" he said giving him the pack containing the blood, "Take her and go! I'll handle it!"

Without waiting for a reply Alec threw himself at the raider as it let out a cry, alerting the rest of the camp. And as much as Anakin wanted to fight he knew his mother needed him as well. So with that he went through the back as he heard another loud cry from the downed Tusken.

Alec jolted up as the tent opened up and there stood three of them, he could hear cries coming out from all around as the whole place was awaken. He cursed as he jumped to the side as they shot at him, "Yeah same to you!" he yells as he hears them scream something, damn this foreign universe and its diverse languages.

It took but a moment for him to reach into his pack and pull out one of the many things he had since acquired since his arrival, "eat this!" he said tossing the grenade at them before blurring out of there. He had cleared ten feet from the tent before it exploded. He ran but was blocked off as he saw them start to circle around the tents, trying to catch him. "Feh." He said as he pulled out his blaster in one hand and a blade in another. He heard one trying to sneak up on him and in an instant he had turned around and slit its throat while shoving it to the ground. He heard them start to yell and that's when he realized they were trying to find Anakin and his mother, "Fuck!" he said as he ran towards the nearest group, "Hey uglies! Here I am! Come and get it, come find out how easy it is to kill an X-5!" Some of them ignored him and instead were heading away, "Oh no you don't!" he yelled pulling out some concussion grenades, "Eat this!" he yelled throwing them quickly, some ahead and some behind his targets, they had nowhere to run now. Then he turned his attention to the rest and went at them, not caring that he shouldn't be using his abilities after all, Anakin should now be far enough that no one would know. And he highly doubted these things would actually be able to tell anyone, well, not that there would be many survivors, if any.

One of them got a lucky hit and he grunted as a he held his side, damn blasters! He retaliated by blurring to another and grabbing its arm, using its own weapon to shoot the one who had gotten the lucky shot, guess he wasn't so lucky after all. By now he had incurred their wrath and they were coming at him in droves, something that should have frightened the average Joe but he had been built for this, he had been trained to be an efficient killing machine since before he could even, well, walk.

He smirked as the rest of them seemed to realize they would not be able to take him down and came to some sort of understanding before retreating, "Ah come on! And here I was just starting to have some fun after our little warm up!" he called out as they ran. He debated going after them but decided against it, "Better check up on Anakin…" And with that he made his way back to the tent, "now where the hell did you go?" he mutters looking down at the tracks, or what was left of them, "Damn, there's a reason why I hate tracking in the sand or snow, shit disappears way too quick." He frowned walking the general area, trying to figure it out when he felt someone approaching and in a moment he had a knife at their throat, "Anakin!" He pulled it away, "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be protecting your mom!"

"She's safe, hidden. I came back when I realized that it was too quiet, figured something had happened."

"Yeah, well it's all clear for now." Anakin nodded at that but seemed to have a look, "What?" Alec asked as he cleaned up his newly acquired blade, "You have that look on your face."

"Oh? What look?" he asked as he turned and walked away.

Alec rolled his eyes following, "The same look Max gets when she's worried or something along those lines."

"…I am not sure of what you're speaking off."

"Bull."

"…you killed them all?"

"Well considering it was kill or be killed? Yeah, pretty sure it was in my own right."

"And the young ones?"

"What about them? They would have grown up and killed other innocent people. Call it preventive planning on my part. Sides, some of them survived."

Anakin said nothing as they reached his mother. A part of him wanted to argue that what had been done would not have been approved by the Council but he knew Alec did not abide by them nor did he care what they thought. He knew what was done would be considered wrong as well as an action of the dark side. And the fact that Alec went about it so flippantly worried him to no end. While on one had he was angry and felt they got what they deserved Anakin tried to banish such thoughts, to not entertain them.

"Anakin?" came the weak call as they reached his mother.

"Mom." He said as he kneeled by her side, the blood roughly three fourths done, "Its okay, we're gonna get you home okay?"

"Thank you Ani, so much. I-I…I don't think I would have made it much longer."

"Shh, don't speak of that. You're safe now. Sleep and once this is done I'll get us home okay?"

She smiled at him, "I'm so glad...Didn't think I'd ever see you." He stared at her as pain filled him as well as anger, anger at that they had been slaves, anger at the fact that he had been forced to cease all contact with her, anger that when he had gone for help they had dismissed him.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure we can see each other. And I'll make sure that you remain protected, something like this will never happen again." 'Least not without me acting on it'

Her smile grew as her eyes began to shut, "I love you Ani." She whispered as sleep took her.

He bent down and kissed her forehead, gently pulling the needle away and fixing her up.

"Tell me now that they didn't deserve it." He looked up at Alec as he stood a few feet away, arms crossed "Tell me they didn't get what was coming after what they did to your mother."

He had been angry of course, furious when he had seen his mother in that state. He had wanted to hurt them all but she needed him first. So he had pushed those emotions aside in order to focus on her. And when he had reached a safe distance where they could hide, he had come to realize that that anger had left him, something he was unsure could have happened so quickly. But it left things shockingly clear for him.

"Anakin, tell me you wouldn't have done the same if something happened to her."

He said nothing at that, a fact that honestly scared him.

Um, wow. It's been over two years since I've updated this. I don't know what to say except that I'm terribly sorry and seriously want to continue this so, yeah. And I still have an idea of how it will go so no worries there. My bad on the generalization though or any OOC since it's been a while since I've watched the movies or the show but I mean, I'm pretty sure it wasn't too bad. So now I'm going to sleep only to wake up in a few hours for classes and freak out because instead of doing HW I did this, yay me! Though I'll admit, I like this chapter so I guess HW and school can suck it? XP

Oh, yeah its obviously really late so I wasn't combing through this like I normally would so, mistakes will be there. My bad.