Intrepid Rescuers (part 2):

At the familiar clatter of rolling droids, Anakin spun around. "Destroyers!" he called in warning as he called his lightsabre back into his hand.

Oh, lovely... More, he overheard Obi-Wan think rather loudly from beside him.

Anakin grinned at his Master's sarcasm as they deflected shots from the shielded droids and backed into the well timed opening door of the turbolift he'd summoned only seconds ago.

Hey, something actually worked out for once!

Obi-Wan overheard his thought too, and sent back in an amusement-laced tone, "The odds were bound to give us something positive at least once," as the doors closed in front of them, enclosing them in safety.

"Drop your weapon," the familiar voice of a B-1 ordered from behind them.

"Or not," Anakin thought back with a mental eye roll.

They turned around and looked at the squadron of battle droids already in the elevator with identical looks of 'you've got to be kidding.'

I think I know what Artoo was trying to warn us about now.

"I said drop 'em," the squad leader said demandingly, pointing his E-5 blaster rifle at Anakin while the rest of the squad raised theirs as well with a chorus of, 'roger rogers'.

Yeah, right.

Anakin and Obi-Wan glanced at each other.

"Shall we put them out of our misery?" Obi-Wan thought, one copper eyebrow rising slightly as his changeable eyes twinkled a merry blue.

"We shall."

The droids didn't even get a chance to fire off a shot in the confined space as the two Jedi sliced and diced them to efficient bits with dying cries of, 'No!" echoing in their ears.

Only seconds after igniting their lightsabres, Obi-Wan looked at the pile of droid bits and toed the squad leader's head and said mockingly. "Roger roger."

Anakin cracked up as they turned to face the doors again. "Roger roger. Kriff, Obi-Wan. You're such a nerfherder." Anakin pushed the button for the highest floor with the unlit end of his lightsabre.

"And proud of it," Obi-Wan replied with a smirk at his own lightsabre as he inspected it casually.

As the lift flew upwards, carrying them towards their heroic moment of rescuing the Chancellor, Anakin glanced back at the pile of droid parts pointedly. "You know, there was once a time when I felt bad about destroying them - I like droids, and these ones are endearingly stupid – but now I'm just glad to see them in pieces."

Obi-Wan, who was now fiddling with one of the tiny screws holding the belt hook onto the end of his lightsabre, glanced up, eyes serious and suddenly more grey than blue. "And that's why we need this war to end; we're all becoming a little harder and uncaring because of it. We were never meant to be soldiers and it's slowly but surely destroying what the Jedi are."

Anakin scowled bitterly. "Ahsoka leaving is proof enough of that. I'm just hoping that we can straighten things up enough to prove to her that the Order is worthy of coming back to. It kills me that she's off saving the galaxy on her own."

Obi-Wan frowned at the recalcitrant screw that appeared to be stripped and wouldn't tighten properly. "I wouldn't say she's on her own; she appears to have been adopted by the Mandalorians if her outfit and beskar armour were anything to go by. She even had the Iron Heart designed into her tunic, and that symbol isn't something they would let an outsider wear."

It wasn't much of a consolation, considering Ahsoka was supposed to be his family, not some random Mando clan's, but it was better than nothing. At least she's not alone.

Obi-Wan gave up on the loose screw and hung his lightsabre on his belt. Or tried to. Because the hook was loose, it kept missing its destination. The fact that the lift suddenly stopped all on its own didn't help.

Even though neither of them had gone anywhere near the control panel, they had to ask.

"Did you press the stop button?"

"No. Did you?"

"No."

Weird. "You don't have to worry, Master, we'll simply take another elevator," Anakin said, and then stepped forward to hit the door button.

Only to be greeted by a few dozen B-1s and their ever present blaster rifles. B-1s who looked like they had been waiting for them. Which made the suddenly stopping elevator make sense. And could also be what Artoo was trying to warn them about.

Poodoo! Scratch that. "Bad idea!"

Obi-Wan was clearly meant to just hold his lightsabre like Anakin was, because their weapons were lit once again as they blocked multiple shots from sending them to early graves. Anakin spared half a second to push the door button again with a few enthusiastic jabs of a finger.

Once the doors had enclosed them in temporary safety again, Anakin started looking for another way out. His gaze settled on the ceiling after deciding that cutting the floor was an even worse idea. "There's more than one way out of here," he said determinedly as he lifted his lightsabre to start cutting a hole.

Obi-Wan, being the more cool-headed one, just huffed, unimpressed. "We don't want to get out, we want to get moving."

Anakin had to concede that his Master was likely right, as usual, but he continued cutting his hole anyway. The comm probably isn't working anyway.

Whether Obi-Wan remembered that the comm was working or not, he was determined to try it. He pulled out his commlink and said with an increasingly elevated tone, "Artoo? Activate elevator 31174. Come in Artoo. Artoo, do you copy? Artoo, activate the elevator number 31174. Artoo! Activate the elevator 31174! Artoo!"

During all of that, Anakin was dying with laughter on the inside, but he hid it from Obi-Wan just so he could hear the other man talk uselessly into the commlink some more.

And he finished cutting his hole in the ceiling of the thick durasteel.

Thanks to the artificial gravity that kept them from floating, the circle of heavy metal dropped to the ground between the two men with a clang, crushing a few droid parts. Anakin smirked at Obi-Wan. See. My way's better. And then leapt up through the hole and onto the roof of the elevator.

"Always on the move," Obi-Wan grumbled. I swear he has the patience of a flea.

"I heard that."

"You were meant to."

"Ha."

Anakin peered down through the hole to see if Obi-Wan was going to follow him up and found him banging his commlink against the wall before trying it again. "Artoo, can you hear me? Artoo."

He's like a mooka with a bone, I swear.

"I heard that."

"You were meant to."

"Insolent brat."

"Takes one to know one."

Obi-Wan looked up at him through the hole. "I'm far too old to be a brat." He sniffed haughtily and then grinned mischievously. "A cheeky arse, now, that's another thing entirely."

Anakin smirked back down. "Accurate. Who called you that?"

"Satine."

Anakin winced at the sudden nostalgia in Obi-Wan's tone. "Ah, sorry to remind you of it, then."

"No. No. It's okay. She usually said it with affection. Usually."

They shared a knowing smile about the fun times of loving a strong willed woman, and then Obi-Wan was trying to get a response from his commlink again. "Artoo, can you hear me? Artoo!" Blasted commlink. Or is it cross-wired droid?

Hey!

Before he could properly scold Obi-Wan for his lack of faith in Artoo, the elevator dropped out from under Anakin's feet.

Kark!

With the battle honed reflexes that had done the job of keeping him alive so far, Anakin used the half millisecond that he was still sort of touching the roof of the elevator to push off with the Force and leap for the ledge of the floor that they had been parked at, while Obi-Wan's yelp of surprise echoed up the elevator shaft.

Great. Now I'm stuck hanging here. And... Obi-Wan's plunging downwards! "Obi-Wan! Are you okay?"

"I'm just dandy. Thank you. And you?"

"Oh. Just hanging out. No biggie."

"Ha. I think Artoo finally heard me. But he's got this thing going the wrong way."

"Yah think?"

Anakin peered down as best as he could over his arm to watch the progress of the lift but had to look up again quickly when the door above him suddenly opened. Two battle droids looked down at him and then one very stupidly said, "Hands up, Jedi." (It was so stupid even the other B-1 realized it, glancing at his partner with as sceptical a look as a basically faceless droid could pull off.)

Are you kriffing kidding me? My hands are already up. And holding me up.

A clatter from the lift far, far below him and another faint echo of a yelp from Obi-Wan had Anakin and the droids peering downwards again. Anakin was very happy to see the lift start to fly back up the shaft towards him.

Except I'll get splattered if I stay here.

After a quick glance at his options, he braced his feet against the wall and leapt to the other side of the shaft, where there was a ledge big enough to stand on – which he would have found and moved to eventually when hanging got old if the elevator continued in the wrong direction - and then waited for just the right timing to jump onto the speeding lift.

As he leapt, the poor idiot droids who'd been leaning over the edge and watching the progress as well finally realized that a good third of their bodies were in the danger zone. A cringe-worthy, "Uh oh," came from one just a fraction before their bodies were slammed into by the roof of the elevator, sending parts flying just as Anakin landed on the roof.

Well. That was fun. And pointless, he thought with a mental huff of annoyance as he dropped down through the hole that had gotten him exactly nowhere.

Only to be greeted by Obi-Wan's lightsabre.

"Oh, it's you," the somewhat rumpled looking Jedi said, turning off his lightsabre and running a hand through his hair to fix it.

Anakin gave his former Master a look of extreme exasperation. "Who else would be dropping down through the ceiling?"

Looking somewhat apologetic, Obi-Wan only shrugged.

Anakin upped his glare, just because he couldn't resist teasing his friend. "What was that all about?"

Obi-Wan saw right through him, of course, and teased right back. "Well, Artoo has been..."

"Ennnn," he cut the other man off, now glaring for real. "No loose wire jokes."

"Did I say anything?" His eyes were very blue again and sparkling like wicked topaz gems.

"He's trying," Anakin said defensively.

"I didn't say anything."

"But you thought it," he grumbled as he checked the progress of the elevator. Only five floors to go to get to the top level of the tower where the Chancellor was supposed to be.

The lift came to a smooth stop two seconds later as Obi-Wan casually adjusted his brown robe to sit perfectly on his shoulders and snarked back, "Did not."

Anakin very nearly said, 'Did too,' but held his tongue because he wanted to be the more mature one for once. He compromised by giving the other man a look of sheer disbelief as they exited the elevator.

Obi-Wan showed many white teeth in return.

Their expressions both fell to serious at the same time as they turned the corner into the main hallway and found Grievous, four Magna Guards, and Shaak Ti all waiting for them about halfway down it.

The Togrutan Jedi Master was kneeling on the floor in a puddle of brown robes with her hands cuffed behind her back. She looked pale and shaky, her upper lip and cheek were swollen on the left side, and there was blood trickling through her robes from a scorched lightsabre slash across her side that had also singed her lek, which was slightly curled and trembling from the pain. The other striped lek just trembled. Her Force signature was so weak, he was amazed she was awake.

"Kark. What did they do to her?"

"I don't know," Obi-Wan replied down their bond as they advanced carefully towards the group. "But they're going to regret it."

"Master!" Anakin thought back in shock as they eyeballed Grievous with identical expressions of barely disguised fury. "Did you just have an un-Jedi-like thought?"

"Believe it or not, my dear former Padawan, even I am not infallible."

Anakin shot his Master a glance of amazement at the confession he never thought he'd hear. "So today, revenge IS the Jedi way?"

Obi-Wan glanced back at him as they came to a stop about two metres from Master Ti. His mouth twitched upward ever so slightly. "I suppose, just for today, it is. Just don't tell the Council I said that."

Anakin almost did a happy dance, despite the situation. "About kriffing time you thought for yourself."

"Anakin..." Obi-Wan sighed. "Don't start on that again. We have much more important things to concern ourselves with at the moment. Like saving Shaak."

"Sorry, Master."