"What are you talking about, Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked.

"A raid," Anakin said, pulling his sword from his belt. "A bunch of mobs are coming to attack the village and they won't stop until either all of them or all of the villagers are dead."

Ahsoka's brow furrowed. "Master, why is a raid getting triggered right now? None of us had Bad Omen, did we?"

Anakin shrugged. "Maybe just us coming here was a bad omen."

The horn sounded again, closer this time.

Obi-Wan and Rex looked back and forth between Anakin and Ahsoka in confusion.

"I'm not even going to ask," Obi-Wan muttered.

"Yeah, we don't have time for questions," Anakin said. He swung his sword around to get a feel for it, then turned to Joseph. "Get everyone inside."

Joseph nodded and ran off. Soon after, a bell rang, warning villagers to take shelter.

"All right," Anakin said, looking at Ahsoka. "Snips, what's the first wave? Do you remember?"

"Ah… I think it's just pillagers," Ahsoka said.

"Okay." Anakin turned to Obi-Wan and Rex. "So first we have… pillagers. Annoying guys with crossbows. They can't shoot very fast, so they're only really bad if there's a lot in one place. But with all four of us, we should be okay. Good?"

Obi-Wan nodded slowly.

"Uh, sir?" Rex said. "I know you three are Jedi and all, but… how am I supposed to fight with a sword if they can shoot?"

"I think I can help with that," came Joseph's voice. He ran up with a bow in hand.

"What are you doing here?" Anakin demanded. "I thought I told you to go inside."

"Thought you would need a few of these," he said, holding up the bow.

"As long as it's not a sword," Rex muttered. He took the bow from Joseph.

Joseph held out an arrow. It had a little number 64 hovering near its center and was about the size of a pencil. "I'd recommend keeping that on your arm."

Rex took the arrow. He looked at it, then at his arm, then at Joseph.

Joseph sighed. "Just… put it there," he said, gesturing to Rex's forearm.

Frowning down at his arm, Rex touched the arrow to his vambrace. When he let go, it stayed there.

"Huh," Rex said.

"There you are," Joseph said. He turned to Anakin and held out another bow.

"Fine," Anakin sighed. He took a bow and arrow from Joseph, slapping the arrow onto the side of his glove. The arrow stuck firmly onto the glove, and the number 64 grew larger.

Ahsoka stepped forward and took a bow and arrow from Joseph too. She put her arrow on her arm. Then she and Anakin both looked expectantly at Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan sighed. He stepped forward and took a bow and arrow. Anakin could've sworn he heard him mutter something under his breath.

Ahsoka giggled. "So uncivilized," she mimicked in a terrible impression of Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan gave her an Obi-Wan Look.

But just then, the bell rang again, cutting off any potential lectures. Then the horn sounded, just outside the village.

Obi-Wan slapped his arrow onto his arm. "Well then, shall we begin?"

An arrow flew past his face.

They all turned to look for the arrow's shooter.

Not far from the village was a forest. A pillager stood just outside said forest, about twenty or thirty blocks away, wearing a dark tunic and carrying a crossbow.

"I suppose that's a yes," Obi-Wan said, drawing his sword and twirling it into his usual Soresu stance.

But Anakin was already running forward, drawing his sword as he ran.

The pillager raised its crossbow.

Without thinking, Anakin raised his sword into a precise position, just knowing exactly where he had to put it, not unlike how he deflected blaster bolts.

The arrow glanced harmlessly off his sword.

The pillager looked shocked.

Anakin smirked.

Then he frowned. How had he done that? He shouldn't have been able to react like that without the Force.

Oh well. He always was gifted.

Anakin charged forward. The pillager was in the process of reloading its crossbow when Anakin took it down with a swift swing of his sword.

But the pillager never hit the ground. With a whoosh, its body turned into dust that drifted silently away on the air.

Suddenly, the sound of a crossbow being loaded hit Anakin's ears. He looked toward the sound and saw another pillager.

Anakin's eyes widened. He raised his sword to block the incoming shot.

Just then, Ahsoka landed on top of the pillager, both her swords flashing. The pillager fell over sideways, never getting a chance to fire.

Anakin gave a grim smirk. He almost felt bad for that pillager.

When Ahsoka had finished, she stood up and twirled her swords. "Saved you."

"What are you talking about?" Anakin protested. "I would've been fine."

"Maybe," she said, smiling sweetly. "We'll never know."

Anakin rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Where's the rest?"

Right as the word rest left Anakin's mouth, something hit him in the back. He could only compare it to a paintball. No, a paintball. Emphasis on pain.

Anakin stumbled and fell to the ground with a yell of… well, pain.

He heard footsteps—Ahsoka's, he realized—run past him.

With a groan, he reached up to feel his nose where he had hit it on the ground.

That was probably the least of his worries.

Then he heard footsteps hurrying toward him.

"No, no…" came Ahsoka's voice.

There was a hand on his shoulder, carefully rolling him onto his side.

"Master, are you okay?"

Ahsoka's face dropped into Anakin's view. Her eyes were wide and she looked worried, but Anakin could only think that it was kind of funny how she was pretty much lying on the ground to look at him.

"Master?"

"Yeah," Anakin said, pushing himself up on his elbow. His eyes subconsciously squeezed shut at the pain that shot through his back. "Totally… fine." He could feel blood starting to soak into his robes, but Ahsoka didn't need to know that.

"Anakin…" came Obi-Wan's voice.

Anakin sighed. Only Obi-Wan could make a single word carry a meaning like you idiot you went and got yourself shot again why do you make me deal with you.

Anakin opened his eyes. "Where's the pillager?"

"I got him," Ahsoka said. "How about you worry about the fact that you just got shot?"

Anakin waved his hand. "Eh, I'm fine. It doesn't even hurt that much anymore." He tried to get up, but Ahsoka pushed him back down by the shoulders.

"Fine has variable definitions," she said.

"One of which is Anakin Skywalker," Anakin said with a smirk.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes.

Obi-Wan crouched down to inspect Anakin's injury. "Ah… Anakin? There's no arrow."

"Wait, what?" Anakin twisted in Ahsoka's grip, trying to somehow look at his own back. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure something hit me…" he deadpanned.

"There is nothing here," Obi-Wan insisted.

"Okay, old man, you must need glasses. Rex? Snips?"

Rex leaned over to look. "General Kenobi is correct, sir."

Ahsoka craned her neck to look over Anakin, keeping a firm hold on his shoulders. "Yeah," she added helpfully.

"Hole in my robes? Anything?"

"Just, uh… some blood?" Ahsoka said.

"Thanks, Snips," Anakin muttered. "I couldn't tell." He sighed and unbuckled his belt. "All right, let's see."

Ahsoka finally let go of Anakin, leaving him free to push up his tabard and tunics as she pointedly looked away. He winced as the less-than-soft fabric brushed over the injury.

"Yeah—something sure feels wrong back there," he said.

"Ha! Told you," Ahsoka said.

"Well…" Obi-Wan said slowly, "there is an injury, but it doesn't look that ba—" He stopped.

That didn't sound good. "Um, what?" Anakin asked.

Obi-Wan didn't reply. He just gently brushed his fingers over the injury.

Anakin winced again. "Hey, be ca—" He blinked.

It didn't hurt at all.

"It's… it's gone," Obi-Wan breathed, confirming Anakin's suspicions.

"Wait, what?" Ahsoka said incredulously. She leaned over to look.

"It just… disappeared," Obi-Wan said.

Anakin waved her away. "Yeah, see? I told you so. I am the definition of fine." He pulled his tunics and tabard back down.

Ahsoka froze. Her eyes went wide and she leaped to her feet. "Oh yeah, right, we're stupid!" she whisper-yelled, holding her face between her hands.

Anakin pushed himself to his feet and buckled his belt. "Speak for yourself, Snips," he said, smirking. He bent down to pick up his sword.

"Minecraft healing factor!" Ahsoka said, gesturing to him with both hands. "That's why you're fine now."

Anakin paused. "Right. That would explain it."

Obi-Wan cleared his throat behind them. "Care to fill us in?"

Ahsoka sighed and turned to Obi-Wan. "Okay. Here, you can heal really fast. Like, waaay faster than in real life."

"So can you not die?" Rex asked.

Ahsoka shook her head vigorously, raising both hands in front of her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah, you can still die."

"Oh," Rex said quietly. "Good to know."

"I assume that the, ah, pillagers heal quickly as well?" Obi-Wan said.

"Actually…" Ahsoka looked at Anakin.

He shook his head slowly. "I don't… think?"

"Well, that's certainly true," Obi-Wan muttered.

"Hey!" Anakin yelled.

The horn sounded again from the direction of the forest.

All four turned to look, hands edging toward swords and bows.

A single pillager came running out of the forest toward the village.

The Jedi reached for their swords, and Rex for his bow.

Just then, the hulking iron form of Jared appeared from nowhere. With a dull clunk, Jared's metal fist hit the pillager.

The four watched as the pillager went flying over the trees.

"I think it's safe to say that one's done," Anakin said.

"We need to bring that guy back with us," Rex breathed.

The bell rang. The horn sounded again.

"Second wave…" Anakin said. He looked at Ahsoka.

"Vindicators," she said, answering his unspoken question. She turned to Obi-Wan and Rex. "Guys with axes who run fast and hit pretty hard."

"This just gets better and better," Obi-Wan muttered.

Anakin gave a short laugh. "Oh, you just wait."

A pillager emerged from the forest.

"What is it with these guys and the forest?" Ahsoka grumbled. She drew her swords again, and Anakin followed suit.

But before any of the Jedi could do anything, an arrow flew past them and smacked into the pillager's head. The pillager fell and dissolved into dust.

Anakin looked back at Rex, who seemed to have fired the shot.

Rex shrugged. "It's not a DC-17, but it works." Then his eyes widened and he quickly nocked another arrow.

Anakin whirled back around in time to see Rex's next shot hit another pillager.

"Come on, Rex, leave some for us," Ahsoka whined.

"With all due respect, Commander, you have one of these too," Rex said, holding up his bow. "Also, I didn't quite, uh…" he gestured toward the pillager, "get him."

Indeed, the shot had hit the pillager in the arm. It looked more angry than injured.

"Ooh, okay," Ahsoka said a little too eagerly, taking out her bow.

The pillager grunted angrily and ran toward the four. As if that wasn't enough, a vindicator came out from behind a tree and joined the pillager.

"Oh, joy," Obi-Wan muttered.

Anakin reached for his sword. He wasn't desperate enough to use his bow just yet.

Ahsoka loosed an arrow in the general direction of the mobs.

The arrow flew between the pillager and the vindicator, who didn't even flinch.

Rex calmly fired a shot and took down the pillager.

"Hey!" Ahsoka cried. "That was mine!"

"Oh. Sorry, Commander," Rex said, lowering his bow and taking a step back.

"Snips, there's still, uh, that guy," Anakin said. "You know, the one running towards us really fast? With the axe?"

"I know, I know," Ahsoka grumbled. She nocked an arrow and fired it at the vindicator.

The shot hit the vindicator in the shoulder, delaying it for about one second before it recovered and continued running.

And then, for no apparent reason, the vindicator fell forward and collapsed into dust.

Anakin and Ahsoka let out a simultaneous "Huh?"

"Rex, did you shoot that one too?" Ahsoka demanded, whirling to face him.

Rex held up both hands in front of himself as if to defend himself from Ahsoka's wrath. "No, Commander!" His voice was higher than usual.

Suddenly, an arrow flew past Anakin's head, much too close for comfort. He dodged it, his head instinctively whipping around to follow its path.

Then he looked back to the source of the arrow.

A pillager stood some distance away, reloading its crossbow.

"Oh. Well, hello there," Obi-Wan said.

"He must have accidentally shot his own guy," Rex said. "Stupid."

"Yeah," Ahsoka said. She nocked an arrow. "Okay. Third time's the charm."

"In other words, you hope for luck," Obi-Wan said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Anakin couldn't see Ahsoka's face, but he could feel her rolling her eyes.

Ahsoka released the arrow.

It embedded itself into the ground at the pillager's feet.

Ahsoka groaned and dropped her bow.

"Padawan—" Obi-Wan began.

But she was already running toward the pillager, iron swords flashing in the sunlight.

The pillager frantically reloaded its crossbow and fired a shot at Ahsoka, but she simply twisted her sword and deflected it, sending it into the pillager's foot. Then she leaped and spun in a circle, swinging both swords in an arc that quickly incapacitated the pillager.

Anakin watched in stunned silence as Ahsoka came back to the group.

She picked up her bow and looked at it for a moment.

Then she looked at Rex.

"Uh, Commander?" Rex said slowly.

She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I don't really want this thing. Do you?"

"Uh… I'm not sure if I could really use two at once."

"I know, I'm trying to think of how you would."

There was a moment of awkward silence as everyone stared at Ahsoka, who was staring at the ground thinking.

"Here," Anakin said after a moment. "Just give it to him so he can use it when his breaks."

Ahsoka's eyes widened. "Oh, yeah, stuff breaks!" She handed Rex her bow and took out her swords.

"Thanks, kid," Rex said, putting the bow in his bag.

"No problem," she said absently, looking down at her swords. "Where's the durability…"

Anakin took out his own sword and inspected it. After a moment, he found a green line running down the hilt.

"On the handle, I think," he said.

Ahsoka looked down. "Oh, yeah."

Obi-Wan cleared his throat.

"Sorry, Master," Anakin said. "Tools and stuff break after you use them for a while. And this," he held up his sword and indicated the green durability meter, "shows you how much durability it has."

Obi-Wan inspected his own sword, then nodded. "I suppose that makes sense."

"These break too, sir?" Rex asked, looking at his bow.

"Yes," Anakin said.

Rex looked at his bow for a moment more, then nodded. "All right. Found it."

"Okay, glad we got that cleared up. Now, let's go find the rest of the mobs," Anakin said, twirling his sword.

"Mobs?" Obi-Wan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Short for mobiles. Basically, a mob is anything that's alive here. Except us."

"Right," Obi-Wan sighed.

"So… we just follow the horn, right?" Ahsoka said, looking at Anakin.

He shrugged. "I guess. But I don't hear it."

Ahsoka tilted her head and listened. "Me neither."

"Thank you for your opinion," Anakin teased.

"I have better hearing than you. My opinion is very important here. I mean, more so than usual."

Anakin rolled his eyes. "Come on. Let's go look around." He started off, intending to patrol around the perimeter of the village.

It wasn't long before Anakin heard the horn. He turned around in a circle, trying to figure out where it had come from.

Ahsoka darted past him, probably following her advanced Togruta senses.

Years together with Ahsoka had taught Anakin that while Ahsoka was often wrong, her senses never were.

He followed his Padawan.

By the time he caught up with her, she was already putting her swords away. She turned to him and smiled.

"Let's see, I think that's…" she looked up at the sky and counted on her fingers, "four for me and one for you."

"It's not fair!" Anakin protested. "You're literally built for hunting!"

She smirked. "I know, it's great. Oh, and look. I got armor." She reached into her belt and took out a tiny pair of iron boots and a tiny piece of iron leg armor. "When they drop stuff, it just automatically goes into your inventory."

"Fascinating," Anakin said, stroking his chin in an impression of Obi-Wan.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes at him. She sat down against a tree and brought the boots close to her feet, intending to put them on.

But they stayed tiny.

She frowned. "How do I put these on?" she asked, tapping the iron boots against one of the leather ones she was already wearing.

The boots disappeared from her hand and materialized full-size on her feet.

"That would be how," Anakin said.

"So maybe if I…" Ahsoka tapped an iron boot with her finger.

Nothing happened.

"Come on…" She tapped twice.

Nothing.

"Please?" She tapped three times.

The boots disappeared from her feet and appeared in tiny form in her hand.

"Oh," she said, smiling. "You have to say please."

"I think it was the three taps," Anakin said.

"Yeah, Skyguy," Ahsoka said. "I was kidding." She put the boots back on, then put on the leg armor.

Once again, the bell rang and the horn sounded.

"ANAKIN!" Obi-Wan yelled.

Over the years, Anakin had learned to interpret Obi-Wan's many different tones of speech. With Obi-Wan, the tone often said more than the actual words being spoken. This yell was in the I-think-I-need-help-but-I'm-not-going-to-say-it-straight-up tone.

"Come on, let's go rescue Master Obi-Wan," Ahsoka said, jumping up and running toward Obi-Wan's voice.

She probably knew about Obi-Wan's tones too.

For the second time that day, Anakin found himself following after his Padawan instead of the other way around. He ran to catch up.

But just as he did catch up with her, she came to a sudden stop.

"Whoa!" he cried, just barely managing to slip sideways so he skidded past Ahsoka instead of running her over. "What the—"

She tapped her montral. "Ravager."

"Ah, kriff," Anakin muttered.

"This way!" Ahsoka called, already running again.

Anakin whirled around and followed her.

Soon enough, Anakin heard a repetitive clunk, clunk, clunk. It was probably the sound Ahsoka had been following.

Ahsoka turned around the corner of a village house and stopped in her tracks.

Anakin came up behind her and peeked over her head.

A giant beast—a ravager—was chasing after Obi-Wan and Rex with heavy steps that made the deep clunking noises Ahsoka and Anakin had heard.

As Anakin and Ahsoka watched, Rex stopped, whirled around, and fired off four arrows at the ravager.

Each arrow hit the ravager directly in the face, but it grunted and just kept coming.

Rex turned and ran.

Obi-Wan smacked the ravager with his sword before running after Rex.

Anakin laughed. He knew he shouldn't find this funny, but he couldn't help it. "Hello there!" he called in his best Obi-Wan accent.

Obi-Wan somehow managed to glare at him while running for his life.

"Feel free to offer assistance! Any time!" he yelled.

"What? This is fun!" Anakin said.

"You're not the one being chased by a mutant reek!"

"It's not a reek, it's a ravager, get it right, Master!"

"I don't care what it is, it's trying to kill us!"

"Is this your way of asking for help?"

"ANAKIN!"

That was the stop-being-an-insolent-youngling tone.

"Fine, fine," Anakin muttered. He touched Ahsoka's shoulder. "Stay here."

She smirked. "This is where the fun begins," she said, sitting down against the wall of a house.

Anakin took a deep breath and looked at Obi-Wan, Rex, and the ravager. Currently they were all running in a circle around a tree.

"HEY!" Anakin bellowed.

Obi-Wan and Rex looked up, but the ravager didn't.

"You! Big guy with horns!"

Nothing.

"I don't think he's listening!" Obi-Wan yelled.

Anakin thought about that.

Obi-Wan was probably right. As usual.

Anakin didn't want to go anywhere near the ravager. Like Obi-Wan said, it was too similar to a reek, and Anakin officially hated reeks after Geonosis.

He pulled out his bow. He didn't use any type of ranged weapon in real life (it would just be one more thing for the Council to get mad about), but he had proven himself to be a good shot with a bow during his and Ahsoka's many PvP sessions.

Anakin grabbed an arrow and nocked it, watching it grow to fit the size of the bow. He pulled back the string and aimed, keeping in mind the distance from him to the target, the time the arrow would take to travel, and how far gravity would pull the arrow down in that time.

When he knew the time was right, he released the string.

The arrow flew straight and true and hit the ravager in the side.

That got its attention.

The ravager stopped chasing after Rex and Obi-Wan and turned to Anakin.

"Uh… hey," Anakin said.

The ravager snarled and charged.

Anakin hurriedly nocked another arrow and shot the ravager in the face.

It didn't even flinch.

"Kark," Anakin muttered.

Then he ran.

The ravager thumped after him, crushing grass and flowers with its heavy steps.

Anakin turned around and fired another arrow.

As before, it didn't seem to do much.

He kept running.

Maybe he could get up somewhere the ravager couldn't. The high ground, as Obi-Wan would say.

Anakin looked frantically around. There was a house with a low-hanging roof. That would probably do.

He ran toward the house and leaped. Even without the Force, he managed a high enough jump to get his arms over the edge of the roof. He quickly pulled himself up.

"It's over, Ravager," Anakin said, trying to imitate Obi-Wan's accent. He turned around and smirked. "I have—"

The ravager had somehow managed to get onto the edge of the roof.

"Ah, kriff." Anakin hurriedly fired an arrow, then leaped to the ground.

He spared a second to send another arrow at the ravager, hoping it would maybe do something.

Nothing.

Anakin turned and almost ran into a cow, meandering across the path in front of him.

"Move, move, move!" he yelled, waving his hand.

The cow ignored him.

Anakin ran around the cow and down the path.

A second later, he heard frantic mooing as the cow scrambled out of the way of the ravager.

"Told you so," he yelled over his shoulder, not slowing his pace.

Then he turned his attention forward again. What could he use to his advantage? There was a hill, lots of houses, lots of trees.

Trees. That might work. Maybe the ravager couldn't fit into the forest.

Suddenly, said ravager roared.

Anakin spun around to look.

The ravager seemed to have forgotten about him. It was bucking around, apparently trying to shake something off.

A familiar blur of orange and white.

Anakin squinted. "That better not be…"

It was.

Ahsoka had somehow managed to jump onto the ravager's back. Iron flashed in the sunlight as she smacked the ravager with her swords again and again.

After what felt like forever, the ravager gave one last groan and went limp.

Ahsoka threw her arms in the air in victory. "Ha ha! That's six!"

Anakin smirked, knowing what was coming next.

As he predicted, the ravager dissolved into dust. Ahsoka yelped as she was dropped unceremoniously onto the ground.

Anakin burst out laughing.

Ahsoka sighed and flopped onto her back in the grass.

"I think…" Anakin said between laughs, "I think you need to retake math, Snips. You had four. Four plus one is not six."

She lifted her head just enough to look at him, her brow furrowing. "It wasn't four plus one. It was four plus one plus one."

Anakin raised an eyebrow.

"While you were getting chased around, Rex and Master Obi-Wan and me took care of the rest of the pillagers."

"Rex and Master Obi-Wan and I," Anakin said. He personally didn't much care for grammar, but he had to have something to nag Ahsoka about.

She pushed herself up onto her elbows. "Also, those things have, like, five times more health than pillagers!"

"Well, I did all the work. You just jumped in, ha ha, at the last second."

"You did not do all the work! Did you see how many times I hit him? While balancing on his back?"

"That still only counts as one, my snippy little friend," Anakin said. He held out his hand and pulled Ahsoka to her feet. "And I get a point too for all the work I did."

"Fine, but you still only have two and I have six."

"I'll catch up. You just wait."

Obi-Wan cleared his throat quite loudly.

"Oh. Hey Master, when'd you get here?" Anakin said.

"While you were bickering with your Padawan," Obi-Wan said dryly. "Now, I believe we have things to attend to?"

"Ah. Yes." Anakin looked around. "Where…"

"Not here," Obi-Wan said.

Anakin rolled his eyes. "Brilliant. Thank you for that insight, Master, never would've known."

"I can hear something," Ahsoka piped up.

"Lead the way, Snips," Anakin said, gesturing grandly.

Ahsoka walked past him and onward, slowly at first, then faster as she became more confident.

The horn sounded.

Anakin ran past Ahsoka and in the direction of the horn.

He rounded the corner of a house and saw a woman. She wore long purple and green robes and a black hat with a green jewel on the band.

When the woman saw Anakin, she gave a chilling laugh.

Undeterred, Anakin charged.

The witch—for that was who the woman was—pulled out a bottle from her robes and threw it at Anakin.

He dodged.

Kind of.

The bottle missed him. That was something.

But as it hit the ground, it exploded like a water balloon.

Grayish-blue liquid splashed all over Anakin's legs, and suddenly it felt like he was running through water.

He tried to push forward, but he could barely move his legs fast enough to walk, let alone run.

Right.

Witches. Potions.

She must've thrown Slowness at him.

Just as Anakin came to that realization, the witch threw something else.

He instinctively ducked to the side to dodge.

But there was no need. The potion had not been aimed for him.

Behind Anakin, Ahsoka yelped.

"Oh, I don't think so," Anakin growled.

He took one more step forward and, with a quick slash of his sword, the witch was gone.

Then he turned back to Ahsoka.

She was hunched over and clutching her stomach, swords forgotten. Green particles rose like steam from her body.

"Master?" she whimpered.

Anakin ran (well, he tried—he ended up staggering) to her side, gently grabbing her hand. "I'm right here, it's okay."

She looked up at him, and his heart clenched at how small and vulnerable she looked. "I don't feel so good." Then she squinted at him. "You have something…"

Anakin looked down.

Gray-blue particles were rising from his body, similar to the particles surrounding Ahsoka.

"Just Slowness. I'm fine. And you're gonna be too," he said, giving her hand a little squeeze. With his other hand, he grabbed Ahsoka's swords and slipped them into his satchel. He turned around and let Ahsoka grab onto his shoulders before tucking his hands under her knees and standing up.

Her arms wrapped around his neck and she let out a whimper.

"You're okay, I got you," he said softly, gently moving her hands away from his throat.

She relaxed, letting her head slump forward against his shoulder. Anakin began walking toward Obi-Wan and Rex, trying to step as smoothly as possible so as to keep Ahsoka comfortable. Obi-Wan and Rex were already jogging in their direction.

"Everything all right?" Obi-Wan asked, falling into step alongside Anakin while Rex did the same on his other side.

Anakin knew his old master well enough to know that this was really his way of asking what exactly the thing was that wasn't all right.

"Poison," Anakin said shortly, staring straight ahead.

"Oh, dear," Obi-Wan murmured. He fell back a bit to look at Ahsoka, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"'M fine," she whispered, then winced in pain.

Obi-Wan patted her shoulder. "You will be. Soon. Just take it easy." He stepped forward, level with Anakin again. "Something's wrong with you too, Anakin."

He must've seen the Slowness particles.

"It just makes me walk slow. I'm fine," Anakin said. "We need milk. Where is that nerdy villager?"

"Are you referring to Joseph?" Obi-Wan asked. "And why do we need milk?"

"In this world, milk is the antidote to poison. And a whole bunch of other stuff."

"Oh," Obi-Wan said. "Look at that. A cow, how convenient."

Anakin looked up.

Indeed, there was a cow not far away. Maybe it was the cow that had almost gotten run over by the ravager.

"Snips, I'm gonna put you down, okay?" Anakin said.

She nodded against his shoulder.

Anakin went over to a house and eased Ahsoka to the ground, leaning her against the wall of the house.

"I'll be right back," he said.

He ran toward the cow.

Oh. He could run again.

The Slowness must have worn off.

He looked down and yes, his Slowness particles were gone.

"Okay," he said to himself.

As he approached the cow, he reached into his belt and pulled out the bucket he had from breakfast. It grew to full size in his hand.

"Uh… hey, buddy!" he said to the cow. "Remember me?"

The cow mooed.

"Okay…" Anakin scratched the back of his neck. "I need some milk to help my friend."

The cow looked at him.

"Is that okay?"

The cow mooed again.

"Thanks. Now, how do you…" Anakin crouched down and held out the bucket toward the cow.

Before the bucket even got within a block of the cow, it filled with milk and shrank to its portable size.

"Huh," Anakin said, looking down at the metal cup of milk in his hand. Then he looked up at the cow and smiled. "Thanks!"

The cow turned and ambled away.

"How rude," Anakin muttered to himself in a Threepio voice, turning to go back to the others.

"A success?" Obi-Wan asked as Anakin came running up.

For an answer, Anakin crouched down next to Ahsoka. "Here you go," he said, lifting the cup toward her lips.

She glared at him over the cup. She hated being babied.

"Trust me, Snips, this is just as weird for me as it is for you," Anakin said.

She kept glaring as she drank the milk.

When she was done, she pushed herself to her feet, leaning on the wall with one hand.

"Hey, hey, hey, take it easy," Anakin said, reaching out to support her. "You just got poisoned."

"And just got the antidote," she said, waving his hands away. "There's just…" She staggered and grabbed at the wall. "just some residual…"

Anakin raised an eyebrow at her.

She glared again. "I'm fine, Master."

He shrugged. "Whatever you say, Snips. Oh, and I have three now. You better watch out."

Obi-Wan cleared his throat. "The raid?"

"Right," Anakin said. "Let's go get 'em."

They set off around the perimeter of the village again.

When they got around to the blacksmith shop, Ahsoka stopped. "Hey, Master?"

"What's up, Snips?"

"I have a brilliant idea."

"Better than getting poisoned?" he said with a smirk.

She gave him an unimpressed look and ran off to the blacksmith shop. A moment later she came running back with a miniature bucket of lava, looking very proud of herself.

Anakin smirked. "Oh, I gotcha," he said, nodding slowly. "You thinking what I think you're thinking?"

"Oh yeah," she said, smirking back.

"I can hear them," Ahsoka said. "Two together."

Anakin peeked around the corner of the building behind which they were hiding, situated conveniently at the top of a hill at the edge of the village. "'Kay, remember to dodge way more than you think you have to," he said.

"I cannot believe this," Obi-Wan muttered.

"It'll be fine. Ready, Snips?"

She nodded.

"All right. Let's go." Anakin walked out from behind the building, then ran at full speed down the hill and toward the pair of witches. "AAAAH!" he yelled as he charged.

The witches turned and looked at him like he was crazy.

Anakin didn't mind. As long as they were staring, they weren't throwing potions.

As Anakin ran past the two witches, he looked over his shoulder and saw that they were following him.

Perfect.

They never noticed Ahsoka sneaking up behind them.

She dumped her lava bucket on the ground between the witches and then ran past them after Anakin.

Anakin stopped and waited for Ahsoka to catch up before dumping his lava bucket on the ground between them and the witches, just to be safe. He held out his fist toward Ahsoka, who bumped it. Neither of them turned their eyes away from the witches, just in case something happened.

Indeed, something did happen.

The witches were floundering in the lava, flames licking at their robes.

Then they took out bottles of orange liquid from their robes and drank the contents.

The flames around the witches disappeared, and the witches turned their attention back to Anakin and Ahsoka.

"Uh…" Anakin said.

"Right," Ahsoka said. "Forgot they do that."

Anakin took out his bow. "Hey! Fire-Resist this!" he yelled, loosing two arrows at the witches.

The arrows both connected, and the witches fell.

Anakin lowered his bow and turned to Ahsoka. "That's… five for me and six for you, right?"

"Sure," she grumbled in a playfully angry way, walking off toward the big lava puddle they had made. She scooped her half of the lava back into her bucket and started back up the hill.

Chuckling, Anakin did the same.

When he got to the top of the hill, Ahsoka was looking down the other side of it. Obi-Wan and Rex were nowhere in sight.

Ahsoka turned to Anakin. "Should we… help them?"

Anakin came up and looked where Ahsoka was pointing.

Down on the opposite side of the hill, Obi-Wan and Rex were fighting two pillagers. As Anakin and Ahsoka watched, Obi-Wan deflected an arrow and executed a fancy-looking spin, taking down the pillager who had shot it. Rex dodged a shot from the other pillager and swung his sword. Before the pillager had even finished turning to dust, Rex was putting away his sword and pulling out his bow. He whirled and fired an arrow into yet another pillager that had been running towards them.

The pillager fell and dissolved to dust.

Then, silence.

It didn't look like they needed help.

Obi-Wan straightened up and wiped his sleeve across his forehead.

"Didn't leave any for us, Master," Anakin said, making his way down the hill.

"You didn't expect us to do nothing while you two ran off to do goodness-knows-what, did you?" Obi-Wan said, putting his sword back on his belt.

"Sir, how many more of these are there?" Rex asked, gesturing around the general area where the pillagers had been.

Ahsoka smirked. "I think this—"

The bell rang, and the horn sounded.

"—is the last one," she finished, looking very proud of herself.

"Nice," Anakin said.

"Let's be going, then," said Obi-Wan.

But at that moment, four vindicators came running toward them with angry grunts.

Rex shot one of them before drawing his sword.

"Stay back!" Obi-Wan cried. He leaped straight into the middle of the three vindicators.

Unsurprisingly, all three of the vindicators fell on him.

But Obi-Wan held his own.

And then some.

Try as they might, the vindicators could not land a hit.

"Oh dear, this is quite unfair. Are there any more of your friends about, by any chance?" Obi-Wan asked, effortlessly parrying two iron axes at once.

Anakin just watched with his mouth hanging open. He looked at Ahsoka and Rex. Ahsoka's face mirrored Anakin's own, while Rex was doing a slightly better job of masking his surprise.

Then Ahsoka sucked in a sharp gasp of a breath. "Master?" she said.

Then Anakin heard what she had.

The telltale repetitive clunk, clunk, clunk of a ravager.

"Ahsoka, Rex, go. I'll get Obi-Wan," Anakin said.

Rex nodded and turned to leave.

"But—" Ahsoka protested.

"No. You." Anakin turned her around by the shoulders. "Go." He gave her a gentle push.

She turned back around, opening her mouth to protest.

"Go," Anakin ordered again.

She groaned, turned, and ran after Rex.

Anakin turned back to Obi-Wan. "Master!" he called.

"What?" Obi-Wan called back. He was currently facing away and didn't turn around.

"Master!"

"What?"Obi-Wan still didn't turn around.

"MASTER!"

"What?" Obi-Wan finally turned around, glaring at Anakin while maintaining his flawless defense against the vindicators.

"Stop showing off and come on!" Anakin pointed at the approaching ravager.

Obi-Wan looked where Anakin was pointing, then back at the vindicators. "Afraid I've got to go," he said to the vindicators before cutting them all down in swift succession and following after Anakin.

"Not very Jedi-like to show off, Master," Anakin said lightly as they ran. "Or toy with your opponents."

"I was brushing up on my Soresu," Obi-Wan said.

Anakin laughed. "Oh, okay, sure."

They ran over the hill. Ahsoka and Rex had stopped to wait for them, but when they were all together again, they continued running.

"What's the plan, Generals?" Rex asked. "And Commander," he added quickly when Ahsoka glared at him.

"Ask Anakin," said Obi-Wan.

"I don't know, I'm making this up as I go," Anakin muttered.

"Why don't I just do what I did last time?" Ahsoka suggested.

"What, jumping on its back?" Anakin stared at her incredulously. "No. That was really stupid and dangerous."

"I was fine!"

"Just because you were fine before doesn't mean you will be this time. Just because I've never been in a crash, does that mean I shouldn't wear a seat belt?"

"You, like, never wear a seat belt."

"And there's one other slight problem with that argument," Obi-Wan muttered.

Anakin sighed. "No, Ahsoka, you are not doing what you did last time. That's final."

"Fine," she grumbled. "How about if we use the lava?"

"That is a much better idea."

They stopped and turned to face the ravager.

"I'll take left, you take right," Anakin said, taking out his lava bucket.

Ahsoka nodded.

The ravager was getting closer. Anakin could feel its footsteps pounding through the ground, into his feet and up his body. He could only imagine what it was like for Ahsoka, with her advanced hearing.

"On three," Anakin said. "One."

The ravager's green eyes were glaring at them.

Anakin wondered if it was bad that he was close enough to notice that.

"Two."

The ravager was getting a bit too close for comfort. Well, even more so than it had already been.

"Three!" Anakin yelled, dumping his lava on the ground. Next to him, Ahsoka did the same.

The ravager grunted in surprise and stopped short, but too late.

The lava flowed over the ground and around the ravager's feet.

The ravager bellowed, struggling to escape, but the lava was too thick. The creature couldn't do anything but stay there and burn.

Obi-Wan drew his sword and walked as close to the ravager as he dared, what with the lava and all.

"Master, what are you—" Ahsoka asked.

Obi-Wan drew back his sword and struck.

The ravager collapsed into dust.

Obi-Wan sighed and put his sword away.

After a moment, he turned around. "What now?" he asked.

The horn sounded again.

"There's your answer," Anakin said, turning towards the sound.

Another ravager came over the hill. But this time, a pillager was riding on the ravager's back.

"All right, the lava should slow it down. Then we can get the guy on top," Anakin said.

"Got it," Ahsoka said, picking up her half of the lava back into her bucket.

Anakin scooped up his lava too. "Same deal," he said to Ahsoka.

"Yep." She drew one sword to defend herself from the pillager. "Except this time there's arrows."

"Yeah, and that," Anakin said, drawing his own sword.

The ravager was coming closer.

The pillager fired a shot at Obi-Wan, who ducked it.

"So uncivilized," he muttered.

"Now, Snips!" Anakin yelled.

They dumped lava at the ravager's feet. As the other ravager had done, this one flailed around, trying to get free of the lava without success.

While the ravager was immobilized, Rex fired a shot at the pillager on its back.

He missed. The ravager was bucking and flailing so crazily that it was near-impossible to hit the pillager.

Rex nocked another arrow and fired again.

And missed again.

"Sir, he's moving too fast! I can't hit him with this!" Rex said, holding up his bow.

Ahsoka gave an exasperated groan and stepped back a bit.

Anakin saw what was coming. "Ahsoka, no—"

Too late.

Ahsoka got a running start and leaped, drawing her second sword in midair.

"What did I just say?" Anakin yelled.

Ignoring him, Ahsoka came down on top of the pillager, killing it instantly. She hit the ravager with both swords, then leaped off just as the ravager turned to dust that was quickly consumed by the lava. Fortunately, she landed clear of the lava, rolling to absorb her momentum.

Anakin ran up to her and helped her to her feet. Then he took her by the shoulders. "Ahsoka! Are you karking insane?"

"Language, Anakin," Obi-Wan said.

Ahsoka's shoulder's hunched slightly. "I had to do something," she said meekly.

Anakin sighed and pulled her into his arms. "Well, don't ever do that again," he said, hugging her close to his chest.

"Uh… okay?" Ahsoka replied uncertainly, her voice muffled by Anakin's robes. She squirmed a bit in his arms.

"I can't lose you," Anakin whispered, not loosening his grip.

"Yeah, you're stuck with me, Skyguy," Ahsoka said, patting him awkwardly yet assuringly on the back.

Obi-Wan spoke up. "As touching as this is, we still have a job to do."

As if on cue, the horn sounded.

Anakin let go of Ahsoka and cleared his throat. "Right." He started off back towards the village.

"Hey, guess what, Master?" Ahsoka said from behind him.

Anakin turned and raised an eyebrow. "Do I want to know?"

"I have eight now," she said proudly.

"What? The mobs?" Anakin closed his eyes and sighed. "I cannot believe you're still thinking about that," he muttered, turning back to go up the hill.

"And you still have five," Ahsoka singsonged after him.

"Just come on," Anakin groaned. He started up the hill.

As he came over the crest of the hill, Anakin came face to face with someone in black robes trimmed with gold.

An evoker.

"Uh, hey there," Anakin said, waving.

The evoker raised its hands, which began emitting purple particles.

Anakin dived out of the way just as a set of metal jaws shot up from the ground and closed on the place where he had been a half-second earlier.

He tumbled down the hill and landed on his back, staring up at Obi-Wan and Ahsoka.

Obi-Wan looked up. Or at least, what was up for him. Not Anakin.

Then he looked back down at Anakin. "I assume you have one of your brilliant plans prepared?"

"Uh, yeah, 'course," Anakin said, pushing himself to his feet. "Rex! Can you shoot that guy?"

"Brilliant," Obi-Wan muttered.

Rex nocked an arrow and let it fly at the evoker.

It hit it in the shoulder.

The evoker glared at Rex and raised its good arm. Its hand began emitting white particles.

Suddenly, Jared appeared over the crest of the hill. His long metal arms smacked into the evoker, sending it flying through the air.

The evoker never hit the ground. It was dust long before then.

"That was… anticlimactic," Anakin said.

Ahsoka gave a short laugh. "Where's he been this entire time?"

"Seriously," Rex muttered.

The image of an emerald with a red ribbon flashed before Anakin's eyes for a second. Then, just as suddenly as it was there… it wasn't.

"Did anyone else see that?" Obi-Wan asked.

"The emerald? Yeah," Anakin said. "It means we're done. Look." He held up his arm, showing off the green particles rising from it. "We are heroes of the village."

"My friends!"

They all turned to see Joseph coming down the hill.

He stopped before them and shook each of their hands.

"On behalf of the village, thank you," he said, bowing. "You have saved us all."

A/N: Holy nuggets, this one was exhausting. I've been working on it for, like, the past month! Here's how I did it:

1. Write a bit

2. Play some Minecraft to get in the proper mood for the story

3. Get completely distracted

4. Write a bit more

5. Go for a walk

6. Write some more

7. Repeat until chapter is finished

And here we are. This chapter was long too-it doubled the length of the story!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it! Tell me how I did! This is my first time writing this much action at once. Also, I may have accidentally left plot holes or something. I don't know. So yeah, please review! Until next time!

-Jimmy