The slave transport ship reeked of urine and feces.
Obi-Wan awoke to the sputtering hum of the transport's engine in his ear as he lay face down on the floor. Rex and Governor Roshti, still unconscious, lay bound on either side of him - all surrounded by a dozen guards with blasters at the ready. With no viewport or line of sight into the cockpit, Obi-Wan could only guess as to their destination.
He knew better than to inquire after Anakin and Ahsoka. The Queen, at least, was smart enough to keep the Jedi separated.
Obi-Wan tugged at the heavy metal collar around his throat, identical to the one encircling Roshti and Rex's throat. A guard smirked at Obi-Wan. With a press of a button, Obi-Wan writhed on the floor as pain, emanating from the bloody collar, rushed through him. Laugher surrounded him.
Humiliating.
Beside him, Rex groaned and pushed himself onto his knees. Obi-Wan shook his head at him. Rex narrowed his eyes, but obeyed the silent command to stand down.
Obi-Wan turned to meditation to escape the bitter, angry mutters of his captors. He slipped into the comfort of the Force. When he opened his eyes as the ship began its landing descent, he felt steadier and calmer - a peace the Zygerrians, he knew, would strive to destroy.
The guards hauled Obi-Wan, Rex, and Roshti to their feet and shoved them into position. The ramp lowered slowly and sunlight streamed into the dark cargo hold. Obi-Wan welcomed the smokey air. Wherever they were, they were floating high above the grounds, judging by mountains in the distance. They had been taken to a mining complex, if the rank odor and muffled sounds were any indication.
Although nothing about their surroundings indicated their location, Obi-Wan counted at least fifty bound Togrutans standing on either side of the walkway leading up to a rotund Zygerrian on a hoverchair. Each Togrutan stood with downcast eyes and slumped shoulders - the picture of defeat and compliance. Were the thousands of other colonists here, as well?
Roshti gasped. "My people! We have found them!"
A guard shoved Roshti. "Keep moving, skug."
Obi-Wan clenched his jaw, digging his nails into his palms.
The Zygerrian steered his chair forward a few paces. "General Kenobi, you are the first Jedi I have entertained at our educational center." The overseer swept his eyes over Obi-Wan disdainfully. "Few possess a Jedi's resolve, and it is strength of will that is my greatest enemy." With a flourish, he pressed a button on his chair and the deck beneath the colonist's feet opened up.
Obi-Wan gasped in horror; he could only watch, helpless, as the colonists plummeted to their death. He sensed their terror and anguish and relief. And he sensed each and every Force signature extinguish. Anger coursed through him. He did his best to keep the emotion from his face - he refused to give the overseer the satisfaction - but his body remained tense.
The Zygerrian smirked. "Now that I have your attention, Jedi, be aware that it will not be you who suffers should you defy me." The overseer smirked and returned to the comfort of his office as if he hadn't just murdered dozens of beings.
Obi-Wan didn't know how, and he didn't know when, but he would escape and he would take as many with him as possible. Then he would ensure that justice was served.
"To work, all of you!" A nameless guard shouted. Obi-Wan and Rex exchanged a glance as they filed in line with the colonists shuffling inside the refinery.
The boom of the blast doors closing echoed down the hallway and reverberated in Obi-Wan's bones.
"We are loved. We are not forgotten. We will be found." Adrina's words in Ahsoka's voice washed over him. He breathed deeply. He could almost hear Adrina's voice murmur in his ear, feel the gentle brush of her hand against his.
"I will always come back to you." That was his solemn vow, one as sacred as the oath he swore to the Jedi Order. Even if it took years, he would return to Adrina. To the Order, he corrected himself. But he knew, in his heart, it was Adrina to whom he would always return.
Down and down winding hallways, the heat rose with each step into the facility. Sweat poured down Obi-Wan's face by the time a Zygerrian threw a shovel into Obi-Wan's hands.
The molten pits provided the majority of the illumination in the refinery. Ventilation shafts above the outer edges of the room allowed a scant amount of light and fresh air to filter down into the depths of the refinery. Zygerrians possessed superior vision, particularly in the dark, so the darkness was not surprising.
What should not have been surprising was the lack of automation. Even the assembly lines carrying the hunks of metal to the waiting fires were crank operated. Slaves operated every ounce of work, no matter how difficult the task.
"Shovel, skug!"
Obi-Wan bowed his head, remembering Adrina's advice, and thrust his shovel into the ore.
It was back-breaking work. It was soul-crushing work.
Keeper Agruss, as Obi-Wan learned the overseer was called on the descent into the refinery, appeared behind him. "Obi-Wan Kenobi: once a Jedi Master, now a Jedi slave." Agruss' laugh grated on Obi-Wan's rapidly fraying nerves. "Pitiful."
Obi-Wan watched Agruss fly away on his hoverchair. One day, Obi-Wan promised himself, Agruss and the rest of the Zygerrian slavers would see justice.
The sharp crack of a whip drew Obi-Wan's eyes. He clenched his shovel. "Everything about this place is designed to shatter the will," Obi-Wan muttered grimly to Rex. "It's already begun to affect these poor people." How long would he hold out?
Pain lashed across Obi-Wan's face and he lifted an arm to shield his head.
"Speech is forbidden!" The slaver snarled.
"I'm sorry," he said, politeness overriding his good sense. "It won't happen again."
"There will be punishment!" The slaver brought his whip down hard on Governor Roshti's back. Roshti collapsed onto the hot metal, groaning.
Obi-Wan darted between the guard and Roshti. "Stop! It's my mistake! Leave him alone." Obi-Wan attempted to help Roshti to his feet, but the Guard rammed his staff into Obi-Wan's collar. Obi-Wan fell back, the pain from the electric shock nearly overwhelming.
"Now a slave gives me commands?"
Crack! Crack! Roshti screamed as each blow fell. "Beg before this one dies because of you." Crack!
Obi-Wan, still on his knees, struggled to lift an arm. But he could play the part they wanted him to play. "Please. Forgive me, Master."
The guards continued on their way, laughing. Obi-Wan waited until they had rounded the corner to stumble to Roshti. Keeping his voice low, Obi-Wan asked, "Are you alright?"
Roshti recoiled from Obi-Wan's outstretched hand. "Keep away from me! Jedi only make things worse."
The words cut deeper than the Zygerrian's whip ever could.
Already they prohibited Obi-Wan from fulfilling his purpose in life.
Already they had succeeded in alienating Obi-Wan from the very people he had sworn to help and retrieve safely.
What could he do when any help he might render would only result in harm?
Not only did the Zygerrian's methods alienate Obi-Wan from the colonists, but it isolated the colonists from each other. The hope of leading the colonists in any kind of rebellion all but vanished.
Adrina's soothing voice whispered in his ear. "You are loved. You will be found."
0
Obi-Wan laid awake listening to the groans and weeping of the colonists, muffled by arms and hands. Two rows over, a sob burst out, unmuffled. His companions hastily shushed him, but it was too late; the whip cracked. A scream, an answering growl, then the squelch and thud of fist on skin.
Obi-Wan stilled. He clenched his jaw. He surged from his bed, consequences be damned, but a hand latched onto his tunic. But when he turned, his bunk mate below him quickly looked away and released him - the effects of the Zygerrian scheme to break - shatter - Obi-Wan.
Silence.
The colonist lived, but the injustice - the unmitigated depravity….. Shame filled him.
A whip cracked across Obi-Wan's back. He bit back a shout and crawled back into his bunk. He curled in on himself, the picture of defeat and compliance the sneering guard sought.
What kind of life was this? How did anyone survive with their humanity intact?
Yet Anakin had done it. Adrina had done it.
Anakin, with his fierce heart and boundless courage, who loved so freely. Anakin, who was always the first to place himself in harm's way for others, who always planted himself defiantly against oppression and injustice. Obi-Wan hoped that heart was serving him well wherever he was being held.
And Adrina….
Adrina…
He remembered their first meeting, all those years ago. He remembered the skittish, guarded young woman, with those distrustful, downcast eyes. Yet she had rushed headlong into danger when she sensed a stranger's distress - had comforted him as if he was her own brother.
They had both retained compassion.
They had not broken.
Nor would he.
Obi-Wan recognized the Zygerrian scheme: isolate and turn his virtues against him. Make him believe he would never be rescued until he utterly despaired. But knowing did not ease its strain. Knowing did not alleviate the pain. It did not staunch the blood or stay the whip.
"You don't know what they are asking of me," Adrina had said when he relayed the Council's order to assist on Tatooine. "It's a hard assignment. Emotionally. I don't think you know, Obi-Wan. It's alright. I wouldn't want you to."
To think, he had called this assignment merely an unpleasant task. How arrogant. How ignorant.
Adrina was right. He didn't understand.
But he was beginning to.
How had Anakin and Adrina survived? Adrina had given the answer to Ahsoka, Obi-Wan realized: to pretend, to focus on the glimmers of hope and happiness.
His Adrina, his remarkable…
No, he corrected himself. She was not his. His heart squeezed.
It was an attraction, nothing more. It couldn't be more.
Obi-Wan closed his eyes and turned over in his bunk, curling in on himself. No. Love was impossible.
0
Waiting was the worst kind of hell. Over forty-eight hours had passed since Anakin piloted D'Nar's shuttle out of the hangar. Over forty-eight hours since she watched the man she loved and her brother disappear into hyperspace.
"One hundred and fifty," Adrina muttered under her breath and made a tally on her tablet. She tossed the tightly wrapped bandage into the container. Her fingers itched to work and her body demanded action - anything to distract from the roaring in her head.
The supply room door hissed open. "You too?" Grief sighed. He added under his breath, "Doc Droid just did those."
Adrina pursed her lips. "I don't particularly care what that hunk of metal just did." Adrina briskly unfolded the next bandage. She shoved the end into the middle of the bundle with more vigor than necessary; Grief grimaced. "What do you need, Grief? I'm busy."
Grief raised an eyebrow. "I see that. But you are about to be late to the meeting. Thought you should know."
Adrina frowned. "Surely not…" But the chrono didn't lie. She gasped. "I'll be right there."
"And you say we are stubborn," he muttered under his breath.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she called after him with the barest hint of a smile, the first in forty-eight hours. She stood and followed.
Grief sent a pointed glance over his shoulders at the bandages. "We are as prepared as we can be. There's no reason to work yourself into an early grave. Don't think I didn't notice you've been sleeping in your office again."
Adrina crossed her arms. "As I have told you multiple times, we can never be too prepared. You never kn-"
"Yeah, yeah." Grief waved his hand. He shook his head. "You and Maelle both, insane."
"Maelle?"
Grief raised an eyebrow. "You didn't notice?"
"Notice what?" Adrina followed Grief's eyes to Maelle down on her hands and knees scrubbing Exam Room Three's floor as if it had personally issued a grave insult.
Grief threw up his hands. "She swears the droid malfunctioned and didn't get them clean enough."
"Well, did it malfunction?" Maelle's new pallor concerned Adrina, as did the dark skin under her eyes. Guild niggled at Adrina. How had she allowed herself to be so distracted that she missed Maelle's struggles?
"No. Maintenance checked it out twice. The floor is fine. Just like those bandages were rolled just fine. Just like the inventory was fine."
"Like I sa-" Adrina frowned. She raised her comlink. "Admiral Yularen, come in please."
"Ah, Healer Skywalker! Impeccable timing, as always." Admiral Yularen's chipper voice replied. "General Skywalker has sent us the coordinates for the missing colonists and we have just jumped into hyperspace. General Plo's forces will rendezvous with us and provide assistance."
Maelle's head shot up.
"We are ready," Adrina said. She lowered her comlink and squared her shoulders. She felt every eye in the MedBay turn to her. "We have work to do."
0
A loud gong reverberated through the slave barracks, jolting Obi-Wan and the other captives awake. Without the sun or a chrono, it was impossible to tell how long they had been granted a reprieve, but his aching body screamed it wasn't long enough.
A Zygerrian made his way down the rows with his whip. Obi-Wan rolled out of his bunk. Without thinking, he offered his hand to the elderly Togrtuan beneath him. The whip cracked across the Togrutan's face before Obi-Wan could retract his hand. The slaver cackled and continued on his way. Obi-Wan glared at his back before offering an apologetic smile to the colonist. But the colonist refused to meet his eyes.
Obi-Wan sighed and joined the shuffle of Togrutan's heading into the belly of the refractory. Rex, who had been assigned a bunk a few rows over, surreptitiously fell into step behind Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan stood a little taller, and he could have sworn Rex did, too.
Again, Obi-Wan found himself staring at an endless pile of rock waiting to be shoveled into the large cart. Rex took up his post to the pile left of Obi-Wan.
He thrust his shovel into the rock and heaved it into the cart. Beside him, he sensed a Togrtuan and Zygerrian approaching. He risked a glance to his right and immediately wished he hadn't.
She couldn't have been more than ten or eleven. She held her shovel in front of her like a shield. She kept her head low, but Obi-Wan could see her eyes darting around. The slavemaster guiding her kicked her between her shoulder blades. She topped forward and Obi-Wan instinctively lunged forward to catch her. The girl was painfully light in his arms.
The slavemaster's whip lashed out. The girl cried out when it connected with her sensitive montrals. She scrambled from his arms.
"You know the rules, Jedi," the slavemaster taunted. He sauntered away, whistling a jaunty tune.
Obi-Wan opened his mouth, but forced himself to swallow the words he desperately wanted to say. I'm so sorry. Be brave. We will save you. Fresh anger surged, but he tamped it down.
A single tear fell from the Togrutan girl's eyes and sizzled on the hot rock beneath her bare, blistered feet. She sniffled once and squared her tiny shoulders. She bent to pick up her shovel.
Obi-Wan watched the child, awed by her resilience. The child was so small, so fragile. Blood stained her back and her hands, and it smeared across her cheeks where she had wiped away sweat and tears. The child, he realized, would be about the same age as Adrina when she made her escape across the Dune Sea.
Obi-Wan wanted to rage. He wanted to throw his shovel down and scream and shout until the very walls tumbled down around them. He wanted to yank the whip from every Zygerrian hand and turn it against them. He wanted-
The girl's load fell from her shovel when she tried to throw it into the cart. Obi-Wan sensed the slavemaster turn, as if he, too, had noticed her struggle. Blood rushed through his ears. He knew that if the slavemaster drew his whip against her again, he would not be able to restrain himself.
But the girl, oblivious to the danger creeping closer, chose a smaller load and successfully foisted it into the cart. The rock clanged on the bottom of the cart. The Zygerrian's eyes narrowed, and continued on his way. Her next load threatened to fall out - the girl really was too small for the work - but a gentle nudge of the Force kept the rocks in the shovel and the slavemaster at bay.
And so they worked. Obi-Wan kept his head down and a careful eye out on his young companion, reaching out with the Force to assist when she stumbled. He worked and worked, until two slavers materialized.
"You're coming with us." The Zygerrian jutted his chin out towards Rex. "Him, too."
Obi-Wan and Rex exchanged a glance. Nothing about this boded well. But it would be pointless to ask where they were being taken or why, and so he kept silent.
Through the dark and heat and dust and screams, Obi-Wan kept his eyes on his feet and his mind on his facade. Four corridors, a repulsorlift up, and a long hallway later, heavy blast doors opened. Their guards jammed their vibrostaves into Obi-Wan and Rex's back, shoving them into the complex's command center.
Obi-Wan counted four officers at computer consoles, plus two at the door - easy enough with Rex at his side, should the situation call for it. At the center of the room, Keeper Agruss lounged in his hoverchair sporting a smug smirk that did nothing to ease the bad feeling growing in Obi-Wan. A sharp kick to the back of his knee brought Obi-Wan to his knees.
"General Kenobi. In chains again, I see."
Obi-Wan froze. He lifted his head slowly. Count Dooku's shimmering hologram sneered down at him. It was only marginally better than Dooku himself. Obi-Wan allowed himself to drop the mask he had adopted. In a split second he transformed into the confident Jedi Master and General. "Count Dooku. Still afraid to get your hands dirty, I see."
A slow smile stretched across Dooku's aristocratic face. "I would gladly make an exception in your case. I merely wanted to bid you farewell before Keeper Agruss puts you to death."
Ice ran down his spine. Rex growled. Obi-Wan scowled. He refused to believe this would be his end. He refused to accept that he would die in such an undignified, insignificant place. They would be sorely mistaken if they thought either of them would go down without a fight.
They would teach them what a Jedi and his friend could accomplish.
"Keeper," a Zygerrian officer interrupted. "The slave ship Tecora is making an unscheduled landing on platform two-four."
Blaster fire followed by an explosion echoed in the command center. Obi-Wan smiled. Unexpected explosions usually heralded one thing.
"Skywalker," Dooku growled. His hologram swiveled back to Obi-Wan. "Kenobi, tell your young friend that if he does not immediately surrender, the slaves will be terminated in his name."
Obi-Wan felt Rex's eyes shift to him and he took a moment to select the words he knew would be broadcasted to his friend. "Anakin, I am certainly glad to see you, though I'm afraid our host feels differently."
"You can't please everyone, Master." Anakin's voice crackled on through the speaker - determined and resolute beneath the thin veil of humor.
"They're threatening to kill slaves unless you surrender."
Anakin did not hesitate. "It's good to see you always willing to negotiate, but I've had enough of bargaining with slavers."
Obi-Wan kept a smile from his face. So Anakin was almost through. But would it be enough? "Anakin, you must realize this is a fight you cannot win alone." Obi-Wan held his breath as he waited for the answer.
He could almost hear Anakin's answering smirk. "Who said I was alone?"
Excellent. The fleet was arriving. Silent communication passed between Obi-Wan and Rex. Their moment approached.
"Keeper! A fleet of Republic warships has dropped out of hyperspace in sector six!" The communication officer exclaimed.
"Jedi reinforcements." Dooku narrowed his eyes.
Obi-Wan looked to Rex, who responded with a short nod. Obi-Wan's muscles tensed. The entire center shuddered under the Republic assault.
There. His opening. With a jerk of the Force, Obi-Wan broke the collar around Rex's and then his own throat. "Rex, now!"
"About time," Rex grunted and sprung into action.
Obi-Wan leapt into the air and landed behind their two guards. He knocked one to the side and, dodging one laser bolt, used the second blast to break his handcuffs. Rex, who had somehow managed to be free of his cuffs, kept two Zygerrians busy. Obi-Wan tackled a third to the ground, exchanging blow for blow.
Keeper Agruss lunged from his chair towards a control panel. Obi-Wan looked up in alarm. Four panels on the screen flashed red. Agruss cackled and smashed the controls. "No!" Obi-Wan shouted.
"Oh, no," Agruss mocked. He settled back into his chair with a cruel laugh.
Obi-Wan knocked the Zygerrian under him unconscious and rushed to the destroyed console. Agruss had electrified the walls in four large holding cells and began opening up the floors. The slaves had some time, but the clock was quickly ticking down until there would be no floor beneath them at all and they fell into the caldera below.
Obi-Wan quickly patched into the Republic military frequency. "Anakin, the slaves are about to drop out of the bottom, but the controls here are smashed; there's nothing I can do."
"You copy that, Master Plo?" Anakin replied.
"The ships will be in position as soon as the enemy cannons are destroyed," Master Plo confirmed.
"Incoming!" Rex warned. Two more guards entered the fray. Rex had armed himself with the vibrostaff of a fallen slaver and he made quick work of one of the new arrivals.
Spotting it wedged between Keeper Agruss' plump leg and the side of the hoverchair, Obi-Wan yanked his lightsaber to him with the Force. The blade hummed to life in his hand. Behind him, Rex felled the second Zygerrian - the last of the Zygerrian officers in the center - and locked the door.
"Come now, Master Kenobi," Keeper Agruss said, smirk still fixed on his face. "You won't kill an unarmed civilian." He leaned back in the chair. But Rex cut Agruss' snort of laughter short by launching his newly acquired weapon straight through Agruss' chest. The vibrostaff pierced Agruss' meaty chest with ease, even cutting through the metal of the hoverchair; only the lower portion of the staff protruded from Agruss' front.
Rex straightened. He looked down his nose disdainfully at Agruss' corpse. "I'm no Jedi."
Obi-Wan sighed. He couldn't fault Rex, not after witnessing the atrocities Agruss ordered, not knowing how difficult prosecuting Agruss in a court of law would have been. "Come on," Obi-Wan said instead. "We need to get the slaves out of here. Then we are going to destroy this place."
Rex snapped a salute.
And they ran to join their brothers-in-arms.