Part Three

Qui-Gon was losing his normal calm fast. He hadn't bothered to contact Mace again. He started by contacting Obi-Wan's parents. They said that Obi-Wan had left. Qui-Gon had to calmly lie to them. So he started with the nearest planet in his Padawan's home system all the way around the Outer Rim system asking if Obi-Wan's craft had landed on their planet. And every planet said the same. "We're sorry, but he hasn't landed here." Or, "We haven't seen him in our system."

Nearly two weeks had gone by since he heard from his apprentice. It was almost like Obi-Wan had vanished. He knew he should have not let Obi-Wan go on his own to see his parents. Yes, his apprentice can be fine on his own, but those dreams he had must have been a warning. Qui-Gon had let Obi-Wan visit his family, while Qui-Gon himself want to Tatooine to just observe the Hutts, Jabba in particular. Obi-Wan would have come to meet him for the next mission with nothing to it. But somehow not on his Padawan's fault alone, the boy got into trouble.

Qui-Gon looked at the monitor in front of him, seeing if there were any other systems he had not checked. Noticing something in the corner of the screen he zeroed in on it.

It looked to be a system of about nine planets orbiting around one sun. Qui-Gon looked at the system in bewilderment. He had never seen this system before. Well there was only one thing to do. Maybe, just maybe, there was that small ray of hope that he could find Obi-Wan.

Tom had gotten a verbal lashing from Benedict for helping the boy. Tom didn't care, Ben was getting better and it looked like he would be on his feet in no time but very slowly.

There was that odd feeling again. There was something strange about Ben and Sam.

Although he was working with his regiment, he was still in thought. Sam wasn't there, Tom had let him keep an eye on his brother. Ben was started to go insane with Sam around him all the time. He was like a hen with her chicks.

It dawned on Tom what was different about the brothers. It was something Ben had told him before he'd…disappeared.

He quickly finished drilling his men. He had some questions to be answered.

Obi-Wan was relieved to not have Sam hovering over him. Maybe it was the fact Sam's real brother that was missing that made him so fussy.

He was on the mend, but he still wasn't perfectly healed. He wasn't able to do all that much, but he was bored with resting.

The tent flip was pushed open to reveal an angry Thomas Anderson.

"Where is she?" he demanded.

Obi-Wan was confused. With a frown, he asked, "She?"

"Yes! She! Sam! Where is she?" Tom nearly roared.

"I don't know what you are talking about, Lieutenant. And I don't know where Sam is," he said quietly.

Turning, Tom stormed out.

What was that all about? Sam is a girl? Obi-Wan got unsteady to his feet. He felt a bit dizzy and his back burning. He knew he shouldn't be up, but something was wrong. Getting a few things, he slowly made his way out. I hope I can get to Sam before Tom does.

Samantha had found a small stream, about two feet deep, not far from camp. Just at the moment, she was washing skin just below her pants leg. She could only afford to wash her lower legs, arms and face. She wished could take a real bath, but she didn't know who would show up, and to keep her cover, she left her shirt and pants on.

She also wished she could stop the pretending and just say that she was Samantha McGregor not Samuel or Sam McGregor. She preferred being called Samantha, but didn't mind that she was called Sam, her brother had called her that all the time. Where was he? She knew that if others found out about her true identity or if Obi-Wan were found out, they would both be flogged or hung.

Sam was relieved that Obi-Wan was getting better, but with Ben really missing, she wanted the boy protected. It wouldn't have helped if she had said that he wasn't really Ben, no one would believe her anyway.

Her thoughts turned again to her missing brother. Ben, where are you? What happened to you? Are you okay wherever you are? Why- Her thoughts were cut short with footsteps approaching.

Sam came face to face with a very livid Tom Anderson.

"What do you think you are doing!" he yelled at her. He was right in her face.

She narrowed her eyes. "What does it look like?"

He looked ready to kill. Namely her. "What do you think you are doing dressing up as a recruit for the army?"

"I'm worried about Ben and Obi-Wan. You don't care a hoot what happens to them do you?" Sam knew that Tom had figured everything out.

"Did you think no one would have guessed?" Sam didn't reply. She had turned her head to listen to something else.

There were footsteps headed their way.

Obi-Wan came into view. There was no color on his face and he could barely stand on his feet.

Obi-Wan could go no further. He was glad he'd found Sam and Tom when he did, and that Sam was all right, as far as he could see.

"Stop."

With his body hurting everywhere, Obi-Wan didn't speak after that.

Everything was spinning and going too fast for his taste.

Tom was closest to Obi-Wan and caught him when he fainted from having driven his body to far, too fast.

Sam got a cloth and wet it with some stream water to revive Obi-Wan with. As she soaked the boy's face, he began to stir.

Obi-Wan mumbled something like, "Need bacta tank."

"A what?" she asked. Obi-Wan just shook his head to clear it.

Tom spoke up. "Are you alright?"

Obi-Wan started to sit up. Pain shot through the welts on his back, and he sucked in a breath.

Sam started to slowly help Obi-Wan to his feet, Tom helped on Obi-Wan's other side. Once they were all on their feet, Sam got her things and they all slowly started back to camp.

The other men in the camp didn't move to help or to stop them. Tom helped Obi-Wan and Sam back the their tent. He was about to start questioning Sam, but was interrupted by a soldier. Benedict wanted to see him.

Irritated that the general wanted to see him, Tom wanted it to be fast. Benedict looked up at Tom with the other men in the tent, and just said, "We are meeting the Commander-in-Chief at Valley Forge just before Christmas."

Benjamin McGregor looked at the British camp with something akin to hatred. He had been a prisoner here for three months.

Why had he been so stupid and left camp that day? Ben had wanted some quiet time and left camp for a few hours. He hadn't known that several British dogs would ambush him.

The lobsterbacks where going through drills now, but the next day, they were going to move on.

For now some of the men, with Ben, went fishing. The general was busy with the men, but he made sure that some of the men went to get food by fishing or hunting. Ben knew they were not hesitant to shoot if he tried to escape.

He was there to just to do as they wished. The men were occupied with their tasks, but kept an eye on him too.

They found a lake out of the way from the camp. Ben was off to the side of the men but not out of their sight.

Ben was in depression with what had happened to him. One thing that had held him back for just running for it and letting the soldiers kill him was his older sister. He knew that there just had to be a way to get out of here. He knew that going back to his own regiment was suicide. No one would believe that he had not deserted.

Something shiny caught his eye. It was in deeper water. He was already wet from trying to catch fish. So, looking to make sure that no one was looking at him, he went into deeper water to retrieve the shiny object.

After picking it up, he looked at it for a moment. It looked to be hard like iron or gold but it had a silver color and was black edges. It looked like someone could grip it with his hand, but what was this weird object's use?

"Hey, what are you doing?" yelled Andrew, one of the British men.

Ben made a show of dropped something into the water. It had been a stone, and he had hidden the silver object in his hand under his shirt. Looking at Andrew, he lied, "I dropped a fish."

Andrew used some choice words that Ben remembered had made his mother's ears ring when she had heard them on the ship they had been on to America. His parents weren't alive now to see what had befallen on their now sixteen year old son. Lord only knew what happened to Samantha.

Andrew, one of the men who had not been able to catch anything, walked over and took his rage out on Ben. Ben tried to back away from the coming blow, but wasn't fast enough.

Ben fell into the water with his cheekbone smarting. Andrew, with the rage and lust for blood, pushed Ben deeper to drown.

Water was rushing in to Ben's nose and mouth. With his body acting in survival mode, he tried to push the body off of him and pry the hands off of his neck.

Before he knew it, Ben was let loose from the demon that had him captive and brusquely pulled out of the water.

Gasping and choking on air for his burning lungs, Ben saw the other lobsterbacks hold down Andrew. Ben was roughly being holding up so he wouldn't black out.

They decided to make their way back to camp. Ben was tied and dragged along.

He didn't know how long it had been but his head started to hurt some too. He couldn't get the pleasure of resting, he had more work to do.

When night finally night came, he was sitting on the hard, cold earth shackled to a post.

He pulled out the hidden object. Luckily no one searched him or saw the bulge in his shirt.

He felt it over with his hands. His thumb pressed on something. Suddenly a blue-white fire shot out. His blue-green eyes got big and he gasped out loud. The blue fire object fell out of his numb fingers and hit the ground with a small thud and went out.

He saw a British solider coming, so quickly he hid the amazing object.

The lobsterback glared at him and kicked dirt at him.

Ben shivered. He just had to get out of this nightmare he was in. He just had to.