OBI-WAN
It hadn't taken him long to find the slavery camps. Obi-Wan had quickly discovered that if you weren't dressed in Zyggerian armor, you were considered a slave. So, no sooner had he left the landing pad, he'd been tackled by two guards and escorted straight to the mining facility.
He'd been pushed roughly into another slave as she shoveled coal into a rail car and they'd both been sent tumbling.
"I'm sorry." He said to her and she looked up at him with half closed eyes. She was so exhausted Obi-Wan wasn't even sure she'd registered what he'd said.
Once the guards had passed he tried to speak with her again. "I'm looking for a man named Qui-Gonn. He was a Jedi?"
Again, the girl just stared at him before turning back to the huge pile of coal.
He decided to try another worker. Walking over to a Twi'Lek he bent at the waist to talk with him, but no sooner had he opened his mouth, a shout came up behind him and he turned to see a guard bearing down on him.
"No talking, skug." The guard barked and pulled out his glowing, orange whip. He raised it above his head and brought it down heavily on the Twi'Lek, who cried out in pain and fell to his hands and knees.
"No, stop! It wasn't his fault." Obi-Wan tried but the guard just laughed and whipped the poor man again.
By the time night had fallen, Obi-Wan was no closer to finding out where Qui-Gonn was. He and Thalia had decided that the slave auction tomorrow afternoon would be their deadline. If they had hadn't found his Master by then, that would be when they'd make their escape.
A harsh bell rang out in the mines and all the slaves clambered to their feet and began to make their way towards the far wall. Behind a heavily guarded door stretched a long, narrow hallway with metal bunks lining every spare inch of wall. Obi-Wan pulled himself up, into one of the cots as the slaves did the same.
There was nothing comfortable about the bunk. It was just a metal plank with no pillow, no mattress and no blanket. As more people joined, the temperature began to rise as did the noise. People spoke, cried, groaned and sighed until there was a cacophony of voices.
Obi-Wan tried to block it out and clear his mind. Meditation always helped but he found that his mind kept wandering to Thalia. He wondered how she was going, was she safe, was she afraid? He suddenly felt an overwhelming desire to just see her. After spending so long together, any time apart felt odd. He thought back to her confession on the Falcon, when she'd told him how scared she was. He could have kicked himself for not doing anything to try to console her. The scar on her cheek was evidence that again he had not been there for her. He remembered the feeling of his fingertips on the soft skin of her face and the way she'd held his hand in his. He missed her presence…
As if being jolted awake from a dream, Obi-Wan suddenly caught himself. What was the doing? He'd lost control of his emotions and they'd hit him all at once, leaving him feeling as if all the air had been knocked from his lungs. He took a long, calming breath, trying to slow his breathing.
Where had these thoughts come from? As an apprentice, he'd spent years perfecting the shield in his mind against emotions but in an instance one girl had managed to break it down with what? A look? A kind gesture?
Not once had she done anything that he would assume would elicit this kind of reaction from someone. There hadn't been a single intimate moment between them, and yet Obi-Wan felt as if his whole world now revolved around her.
Stop. Remember your training. Meditate to clear your mind. His thoughts were getting ahead of him, jumping to unnecessary conclusions. His world did revolve around her. Because she was his mission. His job was to focus on nothing else except her. There was no need to get caught up in this unreliable hive of thoughts.
In two days time, they'd be off Zyggeria with Qui-Gonn and headed back to Naboo. Thalia would be fine. He'd know if she wasn't.