Anakin POV

Anakin finally broke into the light, gasping for air. His Master had his arms wrapped around his neck as Anakin pulled them, hand over hand, out of the quicksand and onto solid ground.

They both collapsed onto tangled tree roots, covered in clinging brown sand.

"Did I ever tell you how much I hate sand?" Anakin grumbled, wiping his hands futility on a nearby patch of leaves.

Obi-Wan coughed and spat out a mouthful of grey-brown gunk.

"I think I'm beginning to appreciate your loathing."

Struggling to their feet, they continued their miserable plod to freedom.

When the giant rodent fell onto Anakin from above, Obi-Wan only sighed.

Of course, there was something else.

Obi-Wan went to stab it with his knife, but Anakin batted it away with his prosthetic arm and skewered it with his sword.

"Hungry, Master?" Anakin asked jauntily, "We could roast it over one of those pop fires."

"No, thank you," Obi-Wan declined politely, his expression prim.

Anakin faked a disappointed sigh and left the body for the creatures of the swamp to munch on. Hopefully that would give the rodents something that was easier prey then the two men and they would be left in peace.

At last Anakin and Obi-Wan stumbled out of the swamp, sand crusted into their damp clothes and hair, looking suitably bedraggled.

"Finally," Obi-Wan said.

"Now, was that so terrible?" Anakin laughed.

Out of nowhere, came the galloping of horses.

Obi-Wan paled.

Prince Humperdinck had found them.

Anakin moved to place himself between his Master and the prince.

Anakin drew his sword and Obi-Wan clutched the knife.

"Surrender!" Humperdinck demanded.

"You mean you wish to surrender to me? Very well then, I accept," Anakin said.

"I give you full marks for bravery. Don't make yourself a fool."

"Ah, but how will you capture us? We know the secrets of the fire swamp. We can hide there happily for some time, so whenever you feel like dying, feel free to visit."

Anakin feigned confidence but Obi-Wan turned to stand back-to-back with him and Anakin knew they were surrounded. Crossbows pointed at them from every side. Not for the first time, Anakin yearned for the Force.

"I tell you once again, surrender!"

"It will not happen," Anakin said grimly, prepared to make a futile run for the dubious safety of the swamp.

"For the last time, surrender!"

"Death first!" Anakin snapped.

"Will you promise not to hurt him?" Obi-Wan said, stepping up to meet Humperdinck's eyes.

"What was that?" the prince asked.

"What the kriff?" Anakin said, looking over at his Master.

Obi-Wan kept his eyes on the prince.

"If we surrender, and I return with you, will you promise not to hurt this man?"

"May I live a thousand years and never hunt again!" Humperdinck swore.

Obi-Wan gestured towards Anakin, but never turned to look at him.

"He is a sailor on the pirate ship Revenge. Promise to return him to his ship."

"I swear it will be done," Humperdinck agreed.

Anakin grabbed Obi-Wan's arm and made him look at him.

"Are you out of your mind?" Anakin hissed.

"I thought you were dead once, and it almost destroyed me. I could not bear it if you died again, not when I could save you."

Anakin closed his eyes for a moment. Then he opened them and met his Master's blue-grey eyes with his own.

"I will come for you," Anakin vowed, his voice soft.

"I know," Obi-Wan breathed.

Anakin watched in silence as Obi-Wan was lifted onto one of the horses and taken away, Humperdinck trailing behind them.

"Come sir, we must get you to your ship," said the sinister man, a count if Anakin had heard correctly. The man that Humperdinck had whispered orders to when he thought Anakin wasn't looking.

"We are men of action, lies do not become us."

"Well-spoken, sir," the man said as he motions for the guards to escort him away.

Anakin noticed that the count has six fingers.

"What is it?" the count asks, noting the direction of Anakin's glare.

"You have six fingers on your right hand. Someone was looking for you."

The count approaches and Anakin tenses. He's so focused on the count that he catches the movement behind him too late to avoid the bludgeoning blow and everything goes black.

-000-

Obi-Wan POV

"Ah, dear Obi-Wan," Humperdinck said as he sharpened his dagger, "Tomorrow you will announce our glorious partnership!"

"I agreed to stay with you, not help you," Obi-Wan said.

Humperdinck sat forward in his chair, his eyes focused on Obi-Wan who stood in front of the desk, his expression neutral.

"Is that so?"

Obi-Wan nodded, looking over the prince's shoulder instead of meeting his eyes. Obi-Wan knew he would be punished for his insolence, but Anakin was free and…

"You no longer care for that pirate's life?" the prince said, a vicious smile on his face.

Obi-Wan's eyes widened and he tensed.

"You agreed to let him go!" Obi-Wan said, his heart plummeting. Of course, Humperdinck was lying. It was his native tongue. How had Obi-Wan been fooling enough to believe him?

Humperdinck stood, leaning across the desk, one hand still holding the dagger.

"I did let him go – go with the count to help him with his experiments."

Obi-Wan stood up straight, his fists clenched.

"It doesn't matter. He will get free and come for me."

"You are foolish, Jedi. No one escapes the count alive."

"Yes, I am a fool for not having seen sooner that you were nothing but a coward with a heart full of fear."

"I would not say such things if I were you!" the prince snapped, storming around his desk.

"Why not? You can't hurt me. Anakin and I are joined by the bonds of brotherhood, and you cannot track that; not with a thousand bloodhounds. And you cannot break it, not with a thousand swords. And when I say you're a coward, it is only because you are the slimiest weakling ever to crawl this planet."

Humperdinck raised the dagger to Obi-Wan's throat, but the Jedi didn't quail.

"I would not say such things if I were you!" the prince said with a snarl, lowering the blade and yanking Obi-Wan towards the door with a bruising grip on his upper arm.

Obi-Wan stumbled along, crashing to the floor as Humperdinck threw him into his room and locked the door behind them. Humperdinck loomed over him, and Obi-Wan clung to the certainty that Anakin would come for him.

-000-

Anakin POV

Tied to a table, already bruised and bloodied from the count's 'experiments', Anakin jerked as the door slammed open and the prince stormed in.

The count stood, his mouth open as if to protest, but a single glare from the prince silenced him.

Humperdinck came to loom over Anakin, but Anakin just glared up at him fearlessly.

"You truly love each other, and so you might have been truly happy. Not one friendship in a century has that chance, no matter what the storytellers say. And so, I think no man in a century will suffer as greatly as you will."

Humperdinck moved over to the lever that controlled the electrodes attached to Anakin. Anakin snarled at him before the prince yanked the lever all the way down.

Before he starts screaming, Anakin heard the count cry out.

"Not to fifty!"