Exhausted, Anakin headed to the quarters he shared with the clones. There was nobody there. Most clones were probably in the mess, but he wasn't hungry, so he simply laid down and closed his eyes.

He woke up to the sight of an already familiar face of a clone in front of his face.

"Already morning, Captain?" Anakin asked sleepily and sat up.
"Oh, no. I just wanted to see if you were alright. You weren't in the mess, and you were lying here as if you just passed out," Rex answered, looking over the little Jedi.
"Oh. I just wasn't hungry. The rations won't be thrown away, right?" Anakin asked.
Rex shook his head. "No, they won't."
Anakin breathed a sigh of relief and was about to lay back down.
"You don't want to make yourself ready for bed?" Rex asked.
"Oh… Yes, thanks, Captain," Anakin answered, got up and went to the refresher to make himself ready.
Every quarter shared a refresher, but the clone troopers always let Anakin have it for himself when he had to use it.
As Anakin entered, a few clones who were showering looked at him, startled. The young Jedi didn't really notice he was too tired to care. He went to a sink and began to brush his teeth.
It wasn't that the clones were ashamed of being seen naked. There was no such privacy on Kamino, and it also wasn't a problem around each other, since they all had the same body. But they had learned that normal people wanted to have a little privacy in a refresher. So they were a little bit shocked and speechless when their little Commander changed into his night clothes in front of them.
After changing and washing his face, Anakin left and went to bed.

"Was that a scar on his back?" a clone asked, after finding his voice.
"I think so, but it was only small and barely visible. Probably from a training accident. I mean, we all have some scars from training. And I heard that Jedi cadets also have very hard training, where they can get a few scars," another clone answered. The others nodded, satisfied with the logical answer.

Anakin woke up in the middle of the night. He sat up, confused. Everything was silent, and he hadn't had a nightmare. He looked around and only then felt what had woken him. He was able to sense when somebody had a nightmare, and right now, he felt that several clones were having one.

He stood up. Normally, he would use the Force to soothe their nightmares and lead them to a nightmare-free sleep. In the past, he used to do that often, even without knowing exactly what he was doing. But now, he knew that he shouldn't simply do that. He had learned that doing that would be a mind manipulation, and the freedom of the mind was sacred to him.

Anakin walked to Jesse, one of the clones having a nightmare. Not knowing what else he should do, Anakin tried to wake him. Jesse jolted up, saw Anakin and reached for his throat with great speed, as if he wanted to choke him. Startled, Anakin stumbled backwards and fell on his butt.
He looked startled at Jesse's face. He knew the look Jesse gave him and it horrified him. He could see and feel Jesse's will to kill him. Only later, when he thought back, he realized that something was strange. Not only that Jesse seemed to want to kill him but that there wasn't bloodlust. It seemed it wasn't his own will and then Anakin remembers the slaves that had to fight and kill monster and even each other. That were the eyes of a slave.

"A-al'verd'ika!" Jesse exclaimed, shocked, as he came to his senses. Immediately, the whole quarter was in tumult.

Rex went straight to Anakin. "Commander, Jesse, what happened?" he asked.
Jesse was lost for words, but Anakin began to stammer. "I-I'm Sorry. I tried to wake him, but I startled him, so he reacted. It was my fault."
Rex looked at Jesse.
"I had a nightmare," Jesse said as if that would explain everything.
Rex nodded. "Are you hurt, Commander?" he asked.
Anakin shook his head.
"Good," Rex said and reached out with his hand. Anakin flinched, as if he thought Rex would try to choke him, too. Rex looked concerned, but pulled his hand back and said nothing. Anakin stood up and headed to his bunk.

"Ok, everybody. It's in the middle of the night, we should sleep," Rex said. Everyone returned to their bunks. Rex exchanged a concerned look with Jesse before going back to his bed as well.

Anakin entered the bridge after being summoned. Cody and Rex were already there, speaking with the holograms of Master Windu, Master Yoda and Chancellor Palpatine.

He bowed. "Masters, Chancellor," he greeted them, hoping that nobody would notice his unease. He didn't feel so confident about being in front of Master Windu and Master Yoda without Obi-Wan. Then there was also Chancellor to mention that when Anakin looked at the clone troopers, he instantly remembered the incident from last night, when Jesse almost started choking him when he woke up.
Anakin didn't want to be afraid of the clones, but looking at their faces suddenly brought back memories of being a slave and being choked when he angered his master or a customer. He remembered the cold eyes which didn't see the person in him.

"Hello, Anakin. It's nice to see our Hero of Naboo again. I hope your Jedi training goes well," the Chancellor greeted him, and smiled.
Anakin glanced unsurely at the two Masters, but then nodded. "Yes. Master Kenobi is a great teacher and I am working hard. I'm very grateful for the chance the Jedi gave me," Anakin answered, trying to sound as formal and pleased as possible.

He didn't know what to think of the Chancellor. He was kind. But Obi-Wan only trusted a few politicians, and the Chancellor was the most powerful man in the Republic. Moreover one of the first things Anakin had learned was to be wary about people with power. The same went for the Jedi Council members.

Master Yoda only nodded. "Time for small talk, unfortunately, there is not," he said.
"Ah, yes, of course. Please, forgive an old man for being excited about seeing a hero again," Palpatine answered.
"As long as we can now go on with the briefing," Master Windu answered. The Chancellor nodded.

"Unfortunately, Master Kenobi was injured in the battle and won't be able to go down to the planet's surface. But we have to make sure that there aren't any Separatists down there," Mace Windu began. "Commander, take a platoon with you. Go to the surface and destroy their base. Make sure that there will be no Separatists anymore," he said to Cody, who saluted.

"I think you should take your Jedi Commander with you," Chancellor Palpatine suggested.
"Ready to go alone on a mission, young Skywalker is not," the Grandmaster replied.
"But he won't be alone, and I think his Jedi senses will be useful down there. I recall that Selvaris is a jungle planet with a lot of dangerous creatures, and you Jedi are good at sensing that kind of danger, is that correct?" Palpatine countered.
"With all respect, Master Jedi, Commander Skywalker's sense of danger was very useful last time, and saved a lot of lives. We will protect him, and as long he listens, he won't be in danger," Cody added.
"Skywalker is not known for listening to instructions," Windu responded.
"In the time he was with us, he listened to all of our instructions. We never encountered a problem with him," the clone commander said.
"I will listen to every instruction and I'll do everything I can to help them. I know how important this mission is. It won't fail because of me," Anakin interrupted.
Mace sighed. "Fine. You will go with the Commander, but only if you listen to every clone out there and don't interrupt the remaining briefing, which means only speaking when spoken to."
Anakin bowed. "Yes, Master."

The little Commander went to his quarters. He was excited to finally wear his new armor on a mission, but he also was a bit nervous. It would be his first mission without his Master.

After he got ready, he went to see Obi-Wan. His Master was still lying on his bunk in the medbay, now reading a datapad.
"Hello, Master," Anakin greeted him and bowed slightly.
"Hello, Padawan. I already heard about the Council's decision," Obi-Wan answered and looked up. Anakin couldn't say what his Master was thinking about it.

Obi-Wan sighed. "Here. I collected information you could need about Selvaris and sorted it, so you can find anything you need in no time. You probably won't have enough time to read it before you go down there, but if you need to look something up, you should find it here." He handed his Padawan the datapad.

"Thank you, Master."
"Be careful and listen to Commander Cody," Obi-Wan said.
"Of course, Master," Anakin answered.
His Master nodded, and then handed him his own lightsaber. "I trust you to bring this back."
Anakin's eyes went wide, then he took it and bowed. "I will be very careful with it and give it back right after the mission," he promised.

The remaining time before the departure, Anakin read as much as he could about the flora and fauna of Selvaris.

By the time Anakin entered the hangar, everyone was already there. Beside Cody, he recognized Waxer and Boil. Everyone was from the 212th Attack Battalion and nobody from the Torrent Company.

They saluted as he approached them. Anakin still didn't like that.

They departed shortly after.

Anakin stepped out of the transporter and immediately stopped walking. He knew that they would land in a jungle and he knew what a jungle was, but seeing it with his own eyes was something else.
"How big…" he mumbled, went to the nearest tree and embraced it, trying to get his hands to touch on the other side of the trunk, but his arms were too short. He looked in awe to the top of the tree.
Anakin didn't realize that the clones were watching him until Cody told them to get to work and build their base.

"Quite impressive, these trees, right?" a clone trooper, Waxer, said as he stepped at Anakin's side.

The young Jedi nodded. "I've never seen trees as tall and wide as these. Even the ones in the Temple are small compared to these here," Anakin answered and let go of the tree.

"I can imagine," Waxer said and waved Boil and another trooper to himself.
"Commander Cody told us to make sure our base is safe and that there are no threats nearby," Waxer told Anakin, while the other two saluted.
"Makes sense. Then let's go," their little Commander said, eager to explore this jungle. Before going, Waxer gave Anakin a comm for emergencies.

They scouted the surroundings. Anakin tried to take in as much as possible of this new surrounding. "This air... it's..." he began searching for words, "it's so wet. Moisture farmers would get rich here." He looked around again and then added, "But I doubt that they are needed here."

The clones exchanged glances. "Do you mean that the air has a high humidity when you say wet?" the third trooper,Trapper Anakin learned, asked.
Anakin looked at him questioningly. "Humidy?" he asked, not sure if he pronounced it right.
"Humidity," Boil corrected.
"Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air," Waxer explained.
"But I can't see any vapor," Anakin said, searching for any sign of vapor.

"It's too distributed to be seen, but you could also say that humidity states how wet the air is. And when it's very wet, like here, it's called humid air," Waxer answered.
"So the wetness of the air has its own word, wizard," Anakin mumbled, happy to have learned something new. Especially about water.

They're scouting took longer than planned.
Anakin stopped often to look at the new plants and insects. The clones hadn't the heart to stop him from looking, even if it slowed them down. At least they could make him understand not to touch strange new plants or insects or follow animals that fled at sight.

"What took you so long?" They were greeted by Cody, as they came back. Before the clones could excuse themselves, Anakin spoke up "That was my fault. There were so many new things, I couldn't help but stop and look. I am sorry." Anakin looked sheepishly at the ground.
Cody sighed "Just don't let it happen, when we don't have the time or we need you."
The little Jedi looked up and nodded. "Of course!"
"Good. We will begin the search tomorrow. We don't have enough time to begin before nightfall," Cody said. He turned to Waxer. "Show our al'verd'ika the camp. He should know what a typical camp in such an environment looks like," he ordered. "Sir, yes Sir," Waxer answered and saluted.
"Come al'verd'ika. If you have any questions just asked," Waxer said to Anakin, who nodded.