Intrepid Rescuers (part 3):
"I'm sorry, Master Kenobi. I failed."
Master Ti's defeated tone and lifeless eyes inspired Anakin's glare at Grievous to transform from hate-filled to flat-out murderous. And then it ramped up to practically volcanic when the cyborg General dared to caress the Togrutan Jedi's montral like he had every right to. Echuta. If he ever touched Ahsoka like that…
The shudder worthy thought made him want to cut off the offending hand and then stab the metal excuse for a being through whatever remained of his withered heart. A few dozen times.
Grievous was ignoring Anakin, though, his entire focus on Obi-Wan as if Anakin didn't exist to him. Considering that we've never actually met in combat by some weird fluke over the entirety of three years of war, it's highly possible that the sleemo General doesn't actually consider me to be an opponent worth paying any attention to. Which he'll regret soon enough, if I can just find the right opportunity.
"Ahhhh. General Kenobi. We've been waiting for you," Grievous said with a hint of a wheeze behind his glee-filled words.
At the same time as the cyborg was talking, a sudden chill in the Force had Anakin's fine hairs standing on end. The next instant, an image flashed into his mind:
He saw Grievous crouched down behind Shaak Ti and a blue lightsabre impaling her through the heart from behind. And then like an incredibly unpleasant echo, he saw it again, but this time it was like he was seeing through the murderous villain's eyes as he looked down at the top of Master Ti's montrals and saw a blue lightsabre emerge from her chest.
Anakin actually shivered from the ice that flooded his veins at the warning from the Force.
And then Grievous was crouching, just like in his vision.
"Master!" Anakin yelled mentally at the same time as he grabbed Shaak Ti with the Force and pulled her as hard and as fast as he could towards himself.
Grievous was left looking amusingly shocked with a just lit lightsabre in hand, which Obi-Wan pulled towards himself in the cyborg's moment of surprise that his plan had been foiled. "What?!" His gold eyes narrowed as he rose to his full height, clenching his now empty fist. "Stinking Jedi. You all deserve to die." He pulled out two more lightsabres from somewhere on his person and started stalking towards them as the hallway suddenly filled with battle droids from in front and behind them.
Anakin crouched down beside the dazed Jedi Master and put a hand on her shoulder, transferring as much Force energy into her as he could spare as Obi-Wan cut her binders with her own lightsabre that he'd just reclaimed and then handed the hilt to her.
Obi-Wan then lit his own lightsabre and faced off against Grievous. "I have to disagree with you, General. We won't be the one's dying today. You and your droids on the other hand…" Even though his Master's back was to him now, Anakin knew he was smirking under his moustache as his enjoyment at taunting Grievous travelled down their bond.
Grievous roared with rage and then lightsabres clashed.
Trusting Obi-Wan to take care of himself, Anakin addressed Master Ti. "Can you get up now?"
"Yes," she nodded.
Anakin helped the Togrutan to her feet with a quick tug on one of her small and elegant hands. She gave him a grateful look that needed no words to translate, looking much better with a quick infusion of the Force flowing through her. Well… Not perfect, but her skin was actually red again and her lekku had stopped trembling, at least. Her wounds would still need attention as soon as possible, though.
While Obi-Wan and Grievous traded insults and duelled in the center of the ever-expanding compliment of droids that were still arriving en masse, Anakin and Shaak lit their lightsabres and assessed their situation.
It didn't look good.
Between the magna guards and the packed hallway filled with battle droids of various classifications, it would be almost impossible for them to escape this without further injury to the weakened Master if they were to try to fight their way out.
Maybe if Master Ti was in top form and we had Ahsoka too.
But she isn't and we don't, so…
Time for plan B again.
And this time, the floor will do just fine.
Anakin grinned fleetingly to himself as he turned his lightsabre towards the floor and started cutting a large circle. Master Ti caught on almost instantly and helped with her own blue blade.
"Obi-Wan!" Anakin called down their bond. "You can skewer Grievous later! We're taking Exit Eyebrow!"
"Fine!"
As blaster fire started raining on them to try and prevent their escape and as he finished his half of the circle, Anakin saw Obi-Wan Force push Grievous into the electrostaff of one his Magna Guards and then flip backwards to land beside him just as the floor dropped out from under them.
They landed in the maintenance hallway below, which was unfortunately filled almost waist deep already with what had to be fuel from the smell and colour of it. And more was pouring in from the broken pipe high up on the wall with every second. And was, of course, rising quickly since the blast doors were sealed at either end of the corridor. Well, poodoo. Down wasn't the right way this time either.
They all immediately turned off their lightsabres so they didn't spark off a massive ball of flames that would toast them instantly.
Obi-Wan gave him one of his patented looks of resigned disbelief. "How do you always manage to find the worst possible outcome for everything you do?"
The young Knight shrugged as they started slugging through the bright green fuel at a fast clip. "I came to the conclusion long ago that bad luck is as permanently affixed to me as my shadow." He glanced back to the hole in the ceiling at the sound of splashing to see a dozen super battle droids drop down into the fuel-filled hallway with them. He increased his pace. "The good news is that they don't dare shoot at us. We're safe for the time being."
"You're idea of safe is not the same as mine," Obi-Wan teased wryly, glancing pointedly back at the battle droids that they were just managing to stay out of reach of and then up at the sparking electrical wires that had been damaged by the same external blast that had broken the fuel line.
"Is this really how all of your missions go?" Shaak Ti asked, her multihued grey eyes wide as she ran while holding her injured side with one hand.
"Unfortunately, yes." Obi-Wan answered.
"How do you two ever accomplish anything?"
Anakin grinned at her fleetingly. "Sheer guts and a refusal to admit defeat."
"He has the stubborn willpower of a whole herd of eopies," Obi-Wan added helpfully.
Anakin snorted as he spotted a service hatch high up a wall that looked like an excellent way out of their current predicament. "And I'm just as full of wind Ahsoka would say if she were here." Stars, I miss her.
This brought a smile to Master Ti's face and made Obi-Wan smirk. "I do miss having a second person here with the same love of teasing you that I have. Rex and Cody are too respectful to be much fun."
"Thanks, Master," Anakin said dryly, rolling his eyes before jumping to the top of the ladder and turning his attention to the keyboard beside the hatch. It was locked, of course. He solved that with a moment of focus in the Force that triggered the release mechanism.
Once everyone had swiftly climbed through just ahead of the grasping hands of the battle droids and into the small service tunnel that would require crawling to traverse, Anakin sealed the hatch by plunging his lightsabre into the keyboard on this side. The durasteel echoed as the droids banged on the other side. He grinned at the hatch maliciously. "Have a nice death, sleemo clankers." He turned and found the two older Jedi watching him with nearly identical looks of gentle reprimand. "Crawl," he ordered them, pretending like that wasn't creepy or anything. "We don't have long before this whole section of the ship blows out."
Obi-Wan blinked once. "Right." And then he turned and started crawling like his life depended on it. Shaak Ti followed and Anakin brought up the rear. Being a healthy male, happily married and hopelessly in love with said wife or not, he couldn't help but appreciate the shapely curve of the Togrutan's arse that her thick robes couldn't disguise as it swayed from side to side only a metre in front of his eyes.
But that made him feel kind of dirty and weird, so he dragged his eyes off her rump and focused on the tall curve of her horns instead. Which helped remind him of Ahsoka and completely obliterated any desire to admire the back end of the Togrutan Master. Thank you, Snips.
After roughly a minute's worth of crawling that their knees were going to remind them of for at least a day, Obi-Wan found another hatch above them that led to the bottom of an elevator shaft. Since up was an excellent idea, they used the small grappling hooks in their utility belts to climb the shaft quickly, going up three floors at a time with Shaak Ti clinging to Obi-Wan's back with her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.
The look the older man was wearing said he didn't mind at all, even if his heart still belonged to a dead woman.
Anakin couldn't blame him for it.
After rising six floors, Anakin stopped and triggered the doors to open and they all swung into the (thankfully) empty hallway. Then Anakin closed the doors and used his lightsabre to weld them shut while Shaak Ti dropped nimbly off of Obi-Wan and then swayed slightly.
Obi-Wan studied his effort with a raised eyebrow as he casually wrapped a supportive arm around Shaak Ti's waist. "What are you doing?"
"The blast will break the hull," Anakin explained out loud while smirking mentally. "Smooth, Master, real smooth." "This side is now pressurized."
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. "Shut up." "Anakin, you still have much to learn. That'll never hold."
Anakin only looked at him with a 'really?' expression.
And just to prove his point, the fuel below them finally ignited, shaking the ship below their feet. Master Ti clung to Obi-Wan with a startled squeak, much to Anakin's amusement and Obi-Wan's apparent enjoyment. A second later, the doors bent outwards as the blast concussion travelled through the ship, but the weld held.
Obi-Wan gawked at the rounded durasteel and then huffed. "All right, I still have much to learn."
Anakin grinned at him. "Can I get that in writing?"
"No," Obi-Wan growled as Master Ti laughed softly and reluctantly – at least, that's how it looked to Anakin - extracted herself from Obi-Wan's now unnecessary hold. She certainly was looking at the handsome, copper haired Jedi as though she'd never really seen him before.
Almost dying does tend to rearrange a person's priorities. And she's never come so close to it before now, so she didn't know what it's really like to be mortal and to feel like one's life is slipping away unlived.
Maybe those two will get together.
Wouldn't that be something? Obi-Wan certainly deserves some happiness after all the poodoo he's been through.
Obi-Wan pulled him from his wistful thoughts by saying, "Let's go. We need to find an escape pod for Shaak and then get on with rescuing the Chancellor." He started down the hallway with brisk steps.
Master Ti pulled Obi-Wan to a stop by the sleeve almost immediately and shook her head emphatically, sending her long lekku swaying across her chest. "No! I want to help you, Obi-Wan! It's not just Grievous here. Count Dooku is on board as well!"
Obi-Wan grasped her shoulders gently and met her eyes with an apologetic shake of his head. "We know. We can handle it, don't worry. The best thing you can do to help me is to get yourself to safety so I'm not distracted by worrying about you, okay?"
Anakin blinked at the scene before him. Whoa. This is getting intense. At this rate, he'll be kissing her by tomorrow.
Assuming the stupid Jedi code doesn't rear its ugly head with reminders about 'no attachments' that no one needs right now and ruin everything, that is.
"Okay," she whispered back. "But I don't like it."
Obi-Wan raised a hand as though he wanted to touch her cheek before he dropped it to his side with a sigh. "I know. I'm sorry."
And there it is. Karking code.
Obi-Wan turned away from Shaak Ti, his expression set and weary. "Come on, Anakin. There has to be a bank of escape pods around here somewhere."
Anakin glanced at the equally weary and hurt expression on Master Ti's face just in time to see it transform to determined acceptance. He suppressed the urge to scowl. "I'm sure there is. If we don't stumble on one soon, I'll try and contact Artoo."
"Good." Obi-Wan nodded and set off down the corridor with the Jedi Master following behind him, her head bowed as she stared at the floor with her arms wrapped around herself.
Anakin shook his head in defeat at how stubbornly stupid the Jedi Masters were and followed.
Huttese Translations:
Echuta – Worst possible curse word. I imagine it would be like saying 'fucking slimeball whoreson' all at once. (Or something like that. :P)
A/N: Exit Eyebrow - If you don't get this reference, look up the deleted scenes from the Invisible Hand on youtube. :D