~Obi-wan's POV~
He was so unsurprised. Sickened, but unsurprised. Beside him, Anakin looked ready to murder someone.
Obi-wan sighed and stroked his beard, how many droids were there? Ah, more than three dozen, that would require clones. Or perhaps they could kill them slowly. Stealth and subtlety might get this done faster. Meanwhile the people would need help afterwards.
It was just like Bruck to enslave the people nearest to him. He had always liked terrorizing the weaker.
Obi-wan and Anakin were crouched in the bushes outside of the town Obi-wan had sensed the night before. The people lugged themselves around, miserable slaves at present.
Obi-wan felt rage flicker at their condition.
Droids marched around them, striking some cruelly with the butt of their blasters. Women sat in a circle, chained together with frozen rope, putting bombs together, a measly fire in the middle of them.
Men dug trails through the four-foot high snow and hauled giant mounds of bombs and snow over to a growing pile. Children were shuffling back and forth between the men and women, doing what they could.
All of them were bare-foot, without much covering and bluer then what was healthy. Obi-wan was extremely surprised they all were not dead.
Force, it was eighty degrees below zero and the huts, meant to provide the warmth most living beings needed, housed the droids, who could not endure so much cold for a long periods of time.
Anger is distraction, he told himself, squelching the unwelcome emotion. He needed all of his wits to save these people. "They're killing them!" Anakin hissed, infuriated.
Obi-wan saw the old embers of childhood rage in his eyes. He would need all of his training to keep Anakin calm, too.
"Yes, well, we'll focus on that momentarily. We need to liberate the village immediately. Those children cannot manage much longer," just as the words escaped his lips, the chain of children was broken as one dropped down limply. His life force vanished.
Obi-wan closed his eyes in respect and sadness, this war had killed too many. "What's the plan?" Anakin preferred anger to sadness, apparently. "Stealth," he replied hollowly.
"So I can't run in and blow everything up?" As he often did. "No."
Anakin sighed and turned back to the village. "I'll take the left squadron if you'll take the right," it was more of an order. Obi-wan nodded. "You take the left," He agreed. With that plan established, they slipped into the town.
~Anakin's POV~
He did not like nor prefer stealth to abrasiveness, but he had to admit; it worked. It did not satisfy him as much as blowing every droid up and slashing them all down aggressively would have done, but he suspected Obi-wan had chosen this strategy according to that.
Obi-wan may not have wanted to speak of Bruck, and Anakin had an idea why. If he could enslave children in below freezing cold, what else could he do? What else had he done?
Anakin poked his head around the latest hut. In less than a minute, he had cut down the five-mega droids standing there.
Force, he hated droids. They were the cause of all the problems in the universe. The force flared with alarm as some of the women looked up from their work. Anakin quickly put a finger to his lips in warning.
The women only stared blankly; Anakin doubted they could think sensibly any longer, as cold as they must have been. He flashed a handsome smile and turned back to his task of destroying the present droids.
Across the village, he felt Obi-wan doing the same. Anakin ducked behind another hut. There were only five more droids that he needed to destroy. Anakin finished his work promptly and happily.
Across the village, he sensed the last droid fall to a blue blade. Anakin rushed back to the enslaved people. Obi-wan was already there, kneeling before the chain of women. "Your free," he assured them, cutting the chain.
"Jedi?" One mumbled groggily as the men turned, blinking rapidly in wonderment. "Free?" One of them muttered. Anakin grinned; this was one of his favorite things about being a Jedi.
Being able to free the oppressed. "Free," he agreed decisively. The men looked at one another, too shocked to be overjoyed, that would come later, Anakin was sure.
"Anakin," Obi-wan said, he picked up one of the children lying on the ground, shivering. "Get inside of the huts. Start them a fire, they're freezing," He ordered.
Anakin nodded and ran inside of the huts, stirring the flames that had been slaves to the droids as well, back into life.
"Alright, done!" He called as he stood. Making fires, among other things, was his specialty. He turned, only to become swamped by the flood of people that had been enslaved. Anakin quickly moved to the side as they rushed in, desperate for warmth as easily as for freedom.
Nearly throwing themselves into the fire, they scrambled close to its flames, letting out contented sighs as the snow melted off their numb blue skin. Anakin stood back with crossed arms.
Some of the children burst into relieved tears, making streaks down the ice on their cheeks. Force, who was this Sith?
Anakin watched them worriedly; would not they get sicker if they warmed themselves too fast? He looked around, where was Obi-wan?
All of a sudden, he heard the creak of things being moved back into place. The people all looked up, terror written on their faces. They thought more droids were coming. "It's alright," he told them softly. "You're safe," He would make sure of it.
The villagers eyed him suspiciously, but upon remembering that Anakin was one of the reasons they were free, went back to basking in the warmth of the fire. Anakin watched them another minute, suddenly very glad Tatooine was not a cold planet.
He turned from the scene and moved aside the tent flap, walking outside. He was met with the sight of Obi-wan lifting discarded droids with the force and putting them in a pile calmly. Anakin smiled.
Only Obi-wan would be fretful with cleaning up the spare remains of their mess for the villagers. His master's annoying cleanliness was a help some of the time anyway.
"What else are you planning on cleaning? Their socks? Maybe knitting them some blankets?" he teased. Obi-wan only glanced at him, his concentration unbroken.
"Very funny. But if you must know, they are too weak to do this themselves, Anakin. I thought I might as well do it for them. Make sure the fire keeps going," he instructed. "I made it strong," Anakin told him confidently. Obi-wan did not stop his task. Anakin had always wondered how he kept his concentration so deeply intact. He would ask later.
"That does not matter in this weather, Anakin. Are they all too close to the fire? They will get sick if they warm up too quickly," Obi-wan told him.
Anakin nodded, he had thought so. "I don't think there's anything we can do about it," he said. Obi-wan nodded and with precise eyes, lowered the last droid into the pile.
Slightly, Obi-wan's arms shuddered with exertion. Anakin scowled as the elder man straightened himself out. His arms were still shaking from the effort and combined cold Anakin assumed.
Amazing, how he had hidden it so well.
For the first time, Anakin saw his master's age acutely. His limbs were weary, his soul and spirit tested every second of every day. In reality, Obi-wan was getting older. And age was not being as merciful to him as he was to everyone else.
Anakin felt his brows scrunch in concern. How old was Obi-wan, really? He actually did not know. All Anakin knew was that Obi-wan was older than him; he had never bothered to ask how much older. He did not know how old his best friend was. Pathetic.
"Are you okay?" he wondered. Obi-wan glanced at him, not a bead of sweat had broken out on his forehead, and he was not panting, but Anakin could still see his limbs trembling. He was sleep-deprived, food-deprived and just plain happiness deprived.
It was a miracle of the force he was not dead already.
He did not deserve this. Without warning, a new feeling opened itself up to Anakin. The same injustice and unfairness he had felt as a child, only multiplied, because this time, there was literally nothing he could do about it.
There was no miracle or Jedi that could come by and save anyone from this fate, no, this was the decision of the force and the corrupt universe.
Moreover, it was not fair. Obi-wan deserved better than this. To be scavenging for peace. To have to face death every day selflessly. To have to face the obstacles as he was growing older selflessly.
He should be sitting in the temple, warm and comfortable, proud and aging. Anakin wanted Obi-wan to live to see Luke and Leia trained.
He wanted him to live to see the next generation of Jedi promoting peace and liveliness. He wanted to take care of Obi-wan, as Obi-wan had taken care of him.
Instead, they were fighting a war.
Pathetic.
"Fine, Anakin," and Obi-wan should not pretend like this. Not with Anakin. He should not pretend as if he were defying time; or perfectly fine when he was probably drained and freezing. But he did, and Anakin respected that almost as much as he felt the injustice of the moment.
He could never do it. Not day in and day out. As he had before, he wondered what Obi-wan was made out of, because it must have been tough, sturdy and strong. So much stronger than Anakin, that was certain.
"I don't think so. Tonight, you are getting some sleep," Anakin told him firmly, walking over. "Was that an attempt at a mind trick?" Obi-wan asked with a cocked eyebrow.
Anakin stopped dead in his tracks, horrified by the very notion. "I'm almost afraid of what you would do to me," he gulped.
Obi-wan smiled. "I'm not sure what I would do with you," he chuckled. "But I don't believe you'd find it very pleasing to have me rifting through your mind," Anakin's horror grew.
"You? In my head? No, thank you. I like being sane, if you don't mind," Anakin said, he walked over and with a wave of his mechanical hand, sent the pile of droid parts flying into the forest.
"We could have done something with those, Anakin," Obi-wan chided. "We have dozens already, just waiting 'to be done something with', Obi-wan. We don't need more. Besides, I felt like doing that, since you did not let me blow them up earlier. What about the bounty hunters?" Since they were currently alone.
Obi-wan shook his head. "I wondered why they weren't here guarding the villagers. Bruck either recalled them or they went back to the main camp," He said. "Do you think Bruck will attack the clones?" An icy fear crept into his chest at the thought. Those were his clones.
Obi-wan stroked his beard, not at all seeming worried. He had the miraculous talent of never seeming worried. "No, they are too lowly of targets for Bruck. And besides, he wants me, not the clones," he said. Anakin's mind spun.
At every word, his curiosity about Bruck grew. What was his relation to Obi-wan? Why did he want him? And why in the universe did Obi-wan seem to get fidgety and nervous when he spoke of him?
Anakin opened his mouth, about to ask a second time, when the tent flap behind them opened, and an elderly man, his small mustache still partially frozen on his chin and his blue skin glowing with warmth came out, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. He smiled at Anakin and Obi-wan blissfully.
"Master Jedi," he said, nearly singing in joy despite his raspy voice. Anakin could not help but forget his anxieties. The smile on the chieftain's face was too large.
"I am sorry that we could not say it earlier, but I want to thank you on the behalf of all of my people for your help," he thanked.
Anakin and Obi-wan bowed. "We come to serve," Obi-wan replied neutrally. The old Jedi mantra that neither had used in so long. Anakin let out a breath of relief that, yes, the Jedi still came to serve.
They always would.
"Do you know whether or not other villages have been conquered?" Obi-wan asked, as usual, the one to take the lead. Anakin had never minded much. The chief shook his head and pulled the blanket around him tighter.
"No, we had managed to stay out of range of the Separatists until a few weeks ago. I have no clue how they found us all the way out here in the mountains," Anakin exchanged a glance with Obi-wan.
"What about our sister planets? The rest of my people?" Amazing, how he was so far away from the rest of civilization, yet he still cared about the city-dwellers of his Coptic.
"They are under Separatist rule," Anakin reported reluctantly. Grief and shock passed over the chief's face for a moment, before vanishing in the folds of his wrinkled face.
He was growing older, too, and yet there were people who could save him. Why not Obi-wan, too?
"I see. What can we do to help?" impressive, most people would not have offered. "For now" Obi-wan replied, not missing a heartbeat. "You could act a as second base for our armies, it would do us a good to expand. We're looking for the Sith leader in these mountains," he explained.
Anakin nodded in agreement. The more ground they covered, the better. The chief bowed his head. "You have the people's loyalty. Anything you need, you need only to ask," he offered.
Anakin smiled, glad to know that there was some good left in the galaxy his master fought for, at least.
Seriously, read those two.