The days after Anakin was released from the healing halls, he was still freed from his lessons.
They told him to use the time to recover and getting further used to his prosthetic. He was glad, because that gave him more time for the housekeeping.
He pondered if he should tidy up his Master's room. Anakin knew Obi-Wan didn't like him to rummage through his stuff, but he wouldn't do that and Obi-Wan would probably appreciate coming back to a tidy and clean room, with no layer of dust on his bed.
And maybe, he will find the detonator to his chip. It had to be somewhere. Either Obi-Wan or the council should have it. But since Qui-Gon was a coreworlder it could be, that Watto never gave the detonator to him, with Qui-Gon being none the wiser.
Anakin shook his head. There was no use for these theories. He would probably find nothing, since nobody would have a detonator just lying around, and Anakin couldn't risk to leave evidence of a search.
In the end, he decided to clean his Master's room and do nothing more. While doing this, Anakin felt more depressed than he ever had.
He could feel his Master's force signature lingering in this room, reminding him of the strict but often nice man. But he couldn't trust him anymore, he shouldn't have trusted him in the first place.
Kind masters are the most dangerous. They use not only your body, but also your mind. These masters get your trust and use it to ask more of you, than you would ever give to another master. They betray you in every way possible, leaving you behind like a drained corpse. No beating or punishment could hurt more than that.
As he was finished, he slumped down at the freshly made bed.
There was instantly the thought that he had to make the bed new, when he stood up again. But the even scarier thought was the lesson of an elderly slave back from Tatooine.
In the slaves quarters, they hadn't any beds. One reason was that beds were a luxury. They were nice to sleep on, but not necessary. The other reason was that beds were some kind of trigger for some slaves. In the brothels, they had beds, but not to get a good night's sleep. And when a master or costumer took a slave to their bed, the slave knew it would be horrible and painful.
The first months, Anakin had problems to sleep on the bed he was given, but Obi-Wan insisted after he found him multiple times sleeping on the ground. With time, he got used to it and since nothing happened, besides his normal nightmares, he was able to sleep rather relaxed and peacefully in his bed.
Now he sat on his Master's bed and finally realized that he had slipped into old habits and old thinking. He sighed and kept back his tears. He couldn't risk it anymore. Anakin couldn't pretend to be free, when he wasn't really free. He wouldn't let his guard down anymore. Wouldn't trust the Jedi and Republic.
Anakin would be a good slave. He would please his masters. But he would stay true to his name: Skywalker. For slavers, it was a slave name. For slaves, it was a hero's name. He would trick his masters to be an obedient slave, and then he would break his chains and the ones of the clones.
Once he swore to free his people on Tatooine. He decided to free all of his people, and the clones definitely belonged to them.
But foremost, he needed their trust, so they would listen to his teachings.
He didn't know how they would react when they find out that he is a slave. They could begin to trust him because they would see him as one of them. But they also could be even more suspicious of him because he was their superior and had a better living than them despite being a slave too.
Anakin knew that he had to be careful and despite wanting to take action, he also knew that he had to be patient. He could do that. For himself and for his people.
He brushed over his master's blanket. This was the end of his "free" live. The next time it would be real. Then he took a deep breath and stood up.
First, he should use the time his master was away with no one watching over him.
Back on Tatooine he had tried to build a scanner to find his slave chip, but it didn't work. Maybe he would find the right parts here. Anakin knew where the Jedi stored their scrap from destroyed droids or old ship parts, until it was brought to a scrapyard.
He didn't know on which days it was brought away, but taking a look wouldn't hurt.
He wanted to run to the storeroom, but even if he there was no supervisor for him, it didn't mean that the Jedi hadn't an eye on him. Luckily, the storeroom was next to the hangar, and it wasn't unusual for him to visit the hangar. And most important, he was allowed to go there without a master because he was in the advanced mechanic course.
As he entered the room, he smiled relived at the piles of scrap. The room was nearly completely full, what could only mean that the scrap would be picked up in the next days. He had to hurry and find what he needed.
Anakin had only begun to search through the first pile, as an upset mouse droid come out from behind the pile. Straight towards him.
"What is it. Is there something?" Anakin asked immediately and crouched down. The mouse droid raced around him once and beeped.
"You want me to follow you? Then lead the way," he said, and hurried after the little droid.
The mouse droid fit easily through the small gabs between the piles. Anakin often had to climb a bit to follow the droid. But soon the droid stopped before a huge pile at the back of the store room. The mouse droids side flaps opened, and it used its mechanical arms to point up the pile.
Anakin looked up and searched for something out of the ordinary, and then he saw something moving and heard a weak beeping.
He frowned, it sounded like a droid, but that couldn't be. Only dead droids, meaning droids which are irreparable damaged or that old, that their central unit gave up, literally meaning that they died, would be brought to the scrapyards.
The Jedi were proud to be thrifty, but Anakin didn't see the thriftiness in it. Wasn't it normal to use something until it couldn't be used or repaired again. But then you don't just throw it away. You could always use the droid parts to repair other droids or build a new one. In the end, the Jedi were just weird.
Putting the thoughts about thriftiness away, he climbed the pile to get to the droid. He couldn't see what kind of droid it was, because it was half buried by literal scrap, but it definitely moved, so he grabbed it and pulled.
He got the droid free with a jerk, leading him to lose his balance and roll down the pile.
"Ow…" Anakin exclaimed, as he landed with the droid falling on him. He remained lying, only breathing and calming down from the shock of falling. It didn't felt like he hurt himself bad. Probably only some bruises. And his prosthetic felt alright, too, when he ignored the sore throbbing between his flesh and the prosthetic's metal.
The mouse droid poked him and beeped, asking if he is still functioning. Anakin chuckles about the phrasing. "Yes, I still work," he said, rolling the defected droid gently to the side and got up.
Now he recognized the droid as a JN-66, one of the archive's analysis droids. The JN-66's had repulsors, instead of legs, giving them the possibility to get to the top shelves of the archive without problems.
It was in a bad shape, looking like it was used as a punching bag. His left arm was even missing, looking like it was sliced off by a lightsaber.
The droid made some miserable beeping, but it didn't even make sense in binary. Its processor seemed to be damaged.
"Poor guy," Anakin murmured. "You want me to help your friend?" Anakin asked the mouse droid, which chirped in affirmative.
"I can do that, but I don't have my tools with me and I probably need some spare parts. Bringing him to my quarters would be difficult. It would be suspect dragging a broken droid through the corridors. Maybe you and some of your friends would be able to drag him through your droid tunnels to get him to my quarters. I will search for some spare parts and come back as fast as possible.
The mouse droid beeped happily, assuring that they and their friends would do everything they could do to help.
"Great, then I leave it to you," Anakin responded and began to search.
His body ached a bit after his fall, but he had been worse, and he had to help a friend, so he ignored his pain and kept going.
Anakin didn't want to stay any longer than necessary. Anyone could come in at anytime. He decided that he should search first for the parts he needed for the droid and come back later for the parts he needed.
Anakin arrived before the droids and began to prepare a workspace in the living room. He had a little workbench for his projects in advanced mechanics, but it was too small for the droid.
Shortly after, the droids arrived, bumping against the door, since the bell was not in their reach. Anakin hurried to the door and helped the four mouse droids inside.
Together they brought the damaged droid to the dining table. Then he got the parts, he even found the droid's arm and a replacement for the destroyed shoulder part, and tools he required and put them next to the droid.
"Who of you wants to help me?" he asked the mouse droids. The smallest of them waved with his claw beeping eager, meaning that he would be the best out of the four.
Anakin smiled. He liked the droids. They were easy to understand, always honest and blunt. They didn't say something while meaning something completely different, and when you are nice to them, then they are nice to you. Droids were loyal to their friends, at least from a certain level of intelligence. But what most people didn't realize, is that most droids, even the simplest, end up at this level of intelligence. The only requirement was the ability to learn, which most droids possess since sentient beings are too lazy to reprogram their droids, when they need to learn something new.
Anakin grabbed the droid and placed them on the table.
"I need you to hand me tools, hold things in place or even use some tools, when I don't have a free hand. You can do that?" Anakin asked, and the mouse droid beeped, happy to help.
They started together and everything went smoothly until they got to the precision works. There he realized that he could do a lot of things with his mechanical hand, but most fine motor skills work was still difficult. He even came to the conclusion that the prosthetic wasn't good attuned with his brain as he needed.
"That won't work", he concluded, and laid his tool down. The droid on the table beeped questioning.
"Don't worry, we will save your friend, but I can't get it done with this hand. But maybe I can readjust it", he explained and went to his bedroom to collect the toolkit, he was given for basic repairs at his prosthetic.
He then settled down next to the droids and took a deep breath. This would be his first time tinkering with his arm.
Foremost, he disconnected his nervous system from the prosthetics.
He wasn't prepared for the pain that shoot up his arm. Anakin gasped and doubled over.
A mouse droid nudged him concerned, but Anakin waved it off and began to readjust his prosthetic. It took some time, since he was very careful.
Reconnecting the nerves was painful too, but this time he was prepared. The young Jedi got up and tested on the droid, if it was better now.
Still not satisfied, he settled back down and disconnected his arm again.
It took Anakin several attempts until he was satisfied. Then he got back to the droid and finished its repair.
He was exhausted when he finally could turn the droid back on.
The droid booted up and looked around. The mouse droids beeped delighted, and Anakin stumbled to the couch and let himself fall on it.
His arm pained him terrible. Anakin closed his eyes, trying to breathe through the pain.
"Hello, young Padawan. I am JN-66-37. My colleagues told me, that you repaired me. I am very thankful for this. May I know your name?", Anakin heard a robotic voice next to him.
"Your welcome, '37. I am Anakin Skywalker", Anakin murmured, knowing that the repaired analysis droid was hovering next to him.
"You seem in distress. Can I help you with anything?" the droid asked.
"Could you get me my painkiller and a glass of water?" Anakin asked and looked up.
"Of course, where can I find everything?" '37 inquired and began gathering everything, after Anakin explained to them where to find it.
Anakin sighed in relief, when the painkiller kicked in.
"Tell, '37, do you worked in the archives?" the young Jedi asked.
"I did. And I wonder if Madame Nu knows what happened to me", the droid answered.
"What do you say about staying here overnight, and we go to Madame Nu tomorrow?" Anakin questioned.
"You won't only repair me but also accompany me to the archives?" the droid asked and Anakin nodded. "I wanna make sure you'll have a safe place to stay and maybe work again and that you won't be cast away again", he answered and smiled.
"Thank you very much, Padawan Skywalker"
Anakin and JN-66-37 decided it was less suspicious if they went separated to the archives and meet there.
Entering the archives, Anakin saw 37' and searched Madame Nu with them.
It didn't take long until Anakin saw her.
"Madame Nu?", he addressed her.
"Padawan Skywalker", she greeted while turning to him. Then she saw the droid hovering next to Anakin.
"JN-66-37 what happened to you and where were you?" she asked astound seeing the missing droid.
"Padawan Skywalker found me at a scrap pile and repaired me. I am fully functional again, thanks to him", the JN-66 unit answered.
"At a scrape pile? What happened?"
"I can't recall all of it, since part of my memory got damaged and because I have sensitive data in my memory, I couldn't let Padawan Skywalker working on it. But from what I recall, there was another Padawan angry at me. He let his anger out on me and probably tried to get rid of the evidence by bringing me to the scrap room", '37 answered.
"Well, I am glad that you are back. We will let a mechanic look over you and your memory, and then you can be back to work", the chief librarian said. Then she turned to Anakin, "I am very thankful for repairing and bringing him back, but what were you doing in the scrap room?"
"I am in advanced mechanics, but one of my projects went wrong. It was beyond repair and I couldn't use it for something else, so I brought it to the scrap room. There I saw '37. He was slightly moving, so I wanted to take a look. I realized that he wasn't beyond repair and decided to repair him and bring him here. It was strange for a repairable droid to be at a scrap pile and even stranger that one of his arm looked as if it was sliced with a lightsaber", Anakin answered. It was only half the truth, but he lied without problem.
"That was a good observation. But maybe you should tell a Master before doing all alone. It could be dangerous. Such a droid is heavy, and it could have a malfunction, attacking people", Madame Nu said, but as she saw the young Padawan preparing himself for a lecture she added, "But there won't be any consequences for you. I only hope that you remember my words for the next time and know that I am thankful for your help."
Anakin bowed slightly. "You're welcome and I will heed your words when I encounter a similar situation", he replied.
Madam Nu smiled and let Anakin go, while she went with JN-66-37 to a mechanic.