A/N: This arc is going to be a mix of canon, deleted scenes, and stuff I make up just for the fun of it. Hope you like it. :D

Intrepid Rescuers (part 1):

Obi-Wan's heart was climbing up his throat as he willed a little more speed out of his dying Interceptor. Through the side window of the cockpit, he watched the progress of the rapidly slamming shut hangar blast door and estimated that at his current speed, he would just make it into the hangar of Grievous' command ship before he ended up as nothing more than a smear on the side of the durasteel plating.

But he didn't relax until he'd managed to land his fighter on the deck of the hangar using the will of the Force more than the actual –and mostly useless – controls.

The instant his ruined and smoking fighter scraped the decking, Obi-Wan pushed the transparisteel cover open with a shove of the Force and leapt out with possibly more enthusiasm than actually necessary. But, kriff, am I ever happy to be free of that deathtrap. It would make this hellish year just a fraction more bearable if I never have to fly another one of those again.

He landed in the midst of a battalion of B-1's, much to their dismay. Obi-Wan had no problem making use of his excess adrenaline to slice the stupid droids into pieces as he neatly dodged or returned their defensive fire.

A fraction of his awareness was also following the progress of Anakin, who had used the body of his fighter to wipe out another battalion, sending mechanical limbs flying hither and yon, and was now casually dismantling droids with his lightsabre as well as they worked their way towards each other.

"What do you want me to do?" Artoo beeped just as they accomplished that, standing back to back against the advancing droids who still remained.

Obi-Wan spared a glance for the admittedly very useful droid who had somehow survived being Anakin's astromech for nearly three whole years of warfare insanity and other adventures. Unlike poor Arfour. "Locate the Chancellor!"

"Okidokey!" the blue and silver droid beeped, and then started rolling for the nearest wall socket, unfazed in the slightest by the wildly flying red blaster bolts.

As the last battle droid fell to the decking with a dying groan of disbelief, he and Anakin looked at each other and grinned. "Just another day in the office, right, Master?"

Obi-Wan snorted as they turned towards the wall and Artoo. "Not that I mind the constant lightsabre practice, but I'm still looking forward to the day our job description changes."

"Tell me about it," Anakin replied with a roll of the eyes. "A proper holiday, at the very least."

"One that happens to be in the same vicinity as a certain Senator?" Obi-Wan couldn't help teasing.

Anakin shot him a sideways look as they stopped by Artoo, who was still working. "I don't think I should answer that."

Obi-Wan inclined his head in acknowledgment. "You're probably right."

"Found him!" Artoo beeped as he projected a blueprint of the dreadnought.

"Good job, buddy," Anakin praised, touching the dome of his droid with his bare hand.

Artoo purred his thanks, rocking slightly on his struts.

Having long ago accepted that Anakin had basically turned his droid into a beloved pet that he'd do almost anything to keep alive, Obi-Wan only rolled his eyes in his mind before he pointed to the dot at the top of the blueprint. "The Chancellor's signal is coming from there; the observation platform at the top of that spire."

Anakin frowned, closing his eyes for a moment as he concentrated. "I can sense him. But I can also sense Dooku."

Obi-Wan copied his apprentice, stretching his Force senses out and up. The Chancellor's old and fuzzy signature was easy to find on the ship full of droids. And Anakin was correct; there was another life signature near the Chancellor's. One he'd encountered often enough to recognize. This one was powerful and writhed with the Dark side.

And that wasn't all.

He also sensed Grievous' cold and oily signature very near to another familiar and disturbingly faint one. One that was dear to him in the way all of his good friends were. Mace did say that they didn't know where she was. With the realization of what they were dealing with, Obi-Wan felt the familiar tingle of a warning from the Force. "And I sense a trap. They have Master Ti, as well."

"Well, kark," Anakin cursed. "So what do we do?"

Obi-Wan grinned in anticipation of hopefully dealing with Grievous and Dooku once and for all. "Spring the trap."

Anakin shrugged slightly and grinned back as they started walking for an exit out of the hangar. "Sounds like fun."

"What about me?" Artoo beeped from behind them.

Uhhhhhhhh.

Anakin turned around and said, "You should stay here with the ship, just in case."

Obi-Wan raised a brow at that. Well, worst case scenario, Artoo can fly the Chancellor to safety at least. Don't know what the rest of us will do about getting off this ship, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. We always do.

"Okay," the little droid beeped, sagging a little in his struts, disappointed at being left behind.

Feeling sorry for him and thinking that having a droid hooked into the system might come in handy, Obi-Wan tossed a commlink at the blue and silver astromech. "Here, take this. See if you can tap into the security feeds and warn us if we're going to walk into anything unpleasant."

Holding the comm in a manipulator like a trophy and plugging back into the wall, Artoo beeped happily, "Okay, Master's Master."

Anakin looked at Obi-Wan with a little bit of shock on his face. "Obi-Wan, are you actually starting to appreciate my droid?"

"Don't start," Obi-Wan grumbled as they resumed walking in the correct direction.

"Who, me?" Anakin grinned, bouncing a little like he used to as a youngling.

"Yes, you. We both know you…"

BOOM!

They spun around and were greeted by a wave of heat and shrapnel that Anakin automatically threw up a hand to block with a Force shield. Obi-Wan blinked at the ball of flames that used to be his starfighter. Holy frag! I would have died in that! But Obi-Wan, being Obi-Wan, only said dryly, "I'm adding that to your starship and speeder kill count."

Anakin lowered his hand now that the danger had passed and gave him a (mostly) fake glare of hurt as they turned back around and made for the hallway out of the hangar yet again. (After he'd flicked his gaze in Artoo's direction to make sure his droid was unscathed from the blast.) "How is that one my fault? You're the one who let buzz droids land on it."

"Let them!? I didn't let them! And it's your fault because you shot at my fighter!"

"All right. I'll give you that one. Add it to my tally."

"I already did."

Their bickering had brought them to an intersection of corridors.

"Which way now, oh wise and all-knowing Master?" Anakin snarked.

"How should I know?" Obi-Wan snarked back as he looked both ways down the hallway, waiting for a sign from the Force or something equally useful to guide him.

Nothing was forthcoming.

"You're the Chosen One with the ridiculous midi-chlorian count, you choose," Obi-Wan finally said after turning his head a few times too many.

Anakin shrugged. "Fine. Then I choose left."

Five seconds later…

"Never mind! Other way!" Anakin called as a squadron of super battle droids with a large droideka escort turned into the same corridor from further down.

They turned and bolted back down the corridor the other way, both knowing they could deal with the droidekas if they had enough time, but why waste the precious commodity when it wasn't necessary?

Turned out it was necessary.

"Blast!" Obi-Wan groaned as they skidded to a stop when another herd of clankers turned into their corridor from the other side. As their lightsabres went to work deflecting blaster bolts and they were slowly surrounded from both sides, Obi-Wan couldn't help but call out to his former Padawan, "You know, your droid isn't doing a very good job of warning us of unpleasant situations so far!"

Anakin, leaping and dodging agilely like a nexu on the hunt as he worked his way around the droidekas to their left, called back, "He didn't have time! We only left the hangar a minute ago!"

"Sure, sure. Defend him if you must," Obi-Wan teased as he dropped and rolled to avoid a wave of blaster fire from his own set of advancing destroyer droids. He rolled right towards them and took out two of the shielded death-machines from underneath on his way by. "But I think he's got a few crossed wires with all the adjustments you've made to his programming over the years."

"There's nothing wrong with Artoo!" Anakin snapped back petulantly, now slicing and dicing a couple of the thickly built B-2s.

Obi-Wan only refrained from laughing at how easy it was to bug his Padawan because he couldn't afford to take his focus off his own set of clanking annoyances. "Fine. Then he's just slow."

"He's not… Grrrr." Anakin gave up, sending his displeasure down their bond before turning all of his concentration into finishing off the last of their unwelcome company, including the last three B-2s from Obi-Wan's half of the battle.

The Jedi Master was happy to let him, if it meant Anakin took his frustration out on something other than himself.

Two minutes after they'd started down the corridor, it was over and there was a heap of sparking droid bits up and down the hallway. Proud of himself, Anakin was grinning once again. "Killing those things never gets old."

"I'm glad you think so, Anakin," Obi-Wan said dryly as they stepped over parts on their way to the bank of elevators they could now see way down the corridor. "Because at this rate, we'll be fighting this bloody war until even you start spouting grey hairs."

Anakin glanced at the grey in Obi-Wan's temples and smirked. "At least it looks good on you."

He wrinkled his nose at the cheeky young man. "And those grey hairs are going on your tally as well. I'm sure I've spouted a few more today already."

"Sorry, Master." His blue eyes were twinkling and Anakin most certainly didn't mean it.

Obi-Wan sighed to himself as they came to a stop in front of the line of turbolift doors. Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve him.

Their commlinks chimed and a bunch of garbled binary sounded through the hallway.

"Now he warns us," Obi-Wan said, huffing and crossing his arms.

Anakin shot him a look that clearly said, 'stuff it', and pulled his comm out from his belt and said, "What was that, Artoo?"

"… the … elevator … squad of …"

Anakin frowned at the commlink, shaking it. "It's broken. Can you understand what he's saying?"

Obi-Wan raised an amused eyebrow. As if I'm supposed to know what your droid is saying better than you? "I'm not a protocol droid, but I did hear something about an elevator."

Anakin looked at the three options for elevators and muttered, "Great. More choices." He glared at each door for a prolonged amount of time as the seconds dragged by.

Obi-Wan leaned a shoulder against the wall. "Take your time. It's not like the Chancellor and Master Ti are waiting for us to save them or anything."

Anakin shot him another, 'stuff it and die' look that only made Obi-Wan smirk under his mustache.

"Kark pat," the younger Jedi muttered in Huttese and smacked the button to summon the middle lift.

"As good a choice as any," Obi-Wan laughed.

And then the familiar sound of rolling droidekas had them spinning around again with lightsabres in hand to face the corridor.