Approximately One Year and Three Standard Months Later
"Waxer, you and Jesse cut to the right."
"Yes, sir. Got anything more specific for us than 'right'?"
Anakin squinted in concentration under the hood that shadowed his face. Lounging against a wall and chewing thoughtfully on a strip of dried nerf meat, he hoped he looked like nothing more than a bored market-goer, perhaps a tired husband waiting for his wife to finish her shopping. Not that he knew what that was like - Padme's style of shopping was goal-oriented and always efficient.
"Thirty degrees."
Anakin tracked the movements of the clones' distinctive white armor out of the corner of his eye as he watched the market. The crowd parted in front of them as Waxer and Jesse tweaked the trajectory of their measured patrol according to Anakin's instructions. Some beings looked at the passing clones with irritation, most with interest, but the Republic's presence on Centares had been constant since the planet had been retaken from the Separatists early on in the war. Almost none reacted with fear, which should in theory be making his search easier, Anakin thought.
Narrowing his eyes even further, Anakin extended his awareness, scanning for the distinct tang of guilt and fear plaguing a former councilor of the Centares Military Council. The man wasn't difficult to spot in the Force - that was how Anakin had identified him as the Separatist informant in the first place - but the sheer volume of beings in this multi-level marketplace was posing an obstacle.
Anakin turned his head sharply, sensing a spike of something familiar in the Force. "Echo, near you. The green coat, brown hood."
The clones were instantly on the move, a burst of action at the edges of the market. Echo lunged for their fugitive, but Anakin had already turned away. The Force was pulling at him, and Anakin made the jump to the uneven, sloped roof of the building behind him in seconds. The shopkeeper whose vegetable booth he'd used as a leg up fussed loudly, but Anakin was already running, circumnavigating the marketplace from rooftop to rooftop.
There was a chase in progress below, shouts floating up to Anakin from various quarters. He kept one ear on the clones' comm chatter, but his main focus was elsewhere. There was somewhere up ahead, a place the wordless shout of the Force told him he needed to be.
"We've lost the general."
That was Rex's voice on the comm. The chase had turned left, the Sep spy leaving the fresh food area of the market and ducking through one of the narrow alleys that led to another part. This whole place was enormous; subdivided into individual circular open areas where people sold their wares, each market circle connected to four others through alleys that punctured each one like the spokes on a wheel. The market was a maze in which one nondescript human male could easily find a place to disappear.
Unfortunately for him, he had Jedi after him.
"I'm with you, Rex," Anakin said into his comm as he leaped over the alleyway, turning left to follow the curves of the roof to the next market circle. Rex didn't bother wasting time asking for clarification, and Anakin wasn't listening anyway. "Cut him off! Lead him east." He put on a burst of speed, clearing the next alleyway without breaking his stride, and turned to follow its path straight ahead.
"Copy, General."
The clones had already been spreading out, racing to flank the fleeing man. Anakin could feel his terror, honed in on it like a hunting nexu, and did not slow even as he oustripped the clones, outstripped the target, and raced on to the next market circle.
"Lost visual on the target."
"I haven't," grunted Anakin. "Keep going."
Finally, he paused, boots sliding on the domed roof as he stopped abruptly above the narrow gap that dropped down into the next alleyway. Turning back, he watched as the clones' high-speed search disturbed the market circle like a stone dropped into a pond, sending ripples out in every direction. One particular ripple was heading Anakin's way at a rushed pace, having found the other three alleyways blocked by searching clones.
As the man ran into the alley below him, Anakin let himself drop. He landed hard on the unevenly cobbled street, 'saber ignited and humming in his hand. The other people in the alley scattered and fled immediately, but when the Sep spy turned to run as well, he found his way blocked by Rex and Fives.
"Well, this was fun," Anakin said. "But it's over now."
The man was trapped. He'd lost his hood somewhere in the chase, and now stood with clear panic in his eyes, hair matted to his head with sweat and chest heaving to catch his breath. Rex moved to grab and restrain him, but the man jerked away. He charged at Anakin like he was going to try to overpower him with his bare hands.
What was he trying to do - earn a quick and painless death by lightsaber? Instead, Anakin punched him in the face.
It had been a left-handed punch, so the man was still conscious, although his nose was almost certainly broken. He was easily scraped up and restrained with magnacuffs.
"Back to the Rotunda. It's time to find out what this scum has fed to the Separatists," Rex ordered.
Anakin had powered his 'saber down, all set to agree, but then hesitated. He cocked his head slightly, reaching into the Force and finding nothing but an unexplained emphatic negative. They had captured their spy, so why was the Force still urgently prompting him? It wasn't danger - he had more than enough experience with the Force's sudden warnings, and even vague premonitions of danger ahead, to know that.
"General?"
"You head back. Deliver this guy to Master Plo - he's more than competent to interrogate him." Anakin walked with Rex back to the last market square. "I've got some unfinished business here."
"Yes, sir."
Rex didn't question him. Anakin had known he wouldn't, which just left him with the problem of figuring out what in the galaxy he was actually doing here.
This market circle seemed mostly devoted to second-hand electronics, each booth stacked up its sides with bulky old comm receivers and amplifiers, or strewn with smaller pieces on top. At least he hadn't ended up in the carpeting section of the market or something, Anakin thought. After the ruckus in the alley, there was no hope of going unnoticed here; he nodded respectfully at every shopkeeper he passed, setting them at ease that his presence meant no further disruption of business today.
After several minutes, almost everyone had lost interest and gone back to their business. Fewer eyes tracked his every move. Except...
Anakin spun around, searching the crowd. He'd felt something - no, someone - staring at him with more intensity than just the detached curiosity and wariness of the market-goers.
With the easy certainty of the Force, he made his gradual way around the market, stopping to look at whatever he thought was interesting. He felt the heat of that same gaze on the back of his neck several times again. Oddly, whoever it was seemed strangely elusive in the Force. Anakin wasn't particularly concerned, still sensing no danger. He thought he might even buy some cheap power cells for R2 from the booth he was at right now.
Sensing that pointed attention on him again, Anakin turned slightly to glance over his shoulder and found himself looking across three booths and into curious, familiar eyes.
He dropped the power cells. He stopped breathing. For all he knew, the whole planet had stopped spinning.
Dimly, Anakin was aware of the shopkeeper complaining about the power cells, but he didn't have attention to spare for that when he wasn't even certain if his heart was still beating. The man's eyes widened when Anakin looked at him, and he quickly turned, shrugging a satchel over his shoulder and walking away.
It was a long second before Anakin regained enough presence of mind to sprint after him.
"Hey! Hey!"
Breathless even though he'd run only about ten paces, Anakin couldn't stop his mouth from falling open when the man turned. He stopped short, only barely avoiding running smack into him. "Fierfek," he whispered. "Obi-Wan?"
It was true. He stared at Obi-Wan, drank him in and didn't dare to blink, waiting for what he was seeing to somehow make sense. But it was true. Obi-Wan's hair was cut short and fell in bangs over his forehead, he was clean-shaven and he wore civilian clothes, but it would have taken a lot more than that to keep Anakin from recognizing him. His eyes, the mole on his cheek, the way he rubbed his chin as he stepped back a pace...
It was like a trip back in time, and Anakin found himself thinking absurdly of the day he'd first met Obi-Wan on the deck of a J-type Nubian in the middle of the Dune Sea.
"Do you... know me?"
Hearing his voice was like a kick to Anakin's chest, oh Force. But the words made no sense.
"Yeah, I know you! Obi-Wan, it's me. I don't look that different, do I?"
"I'm afraid I wouldn't know." A wry smile pressed at the corner of Obi-Wan's mouth. "I don't remember."
"You don't rem- what do you mean?"
He shrugged slightly, tugging at the strap of the satchel on his shoulder. A self-conscious gesture, Anakin thought, but Obi-Wan held his gaze evenly. "I don't remember anything before... I suppose it's over a standard year and a half ago, now."
Anakin gaped. "N-nothing?" It made a kind of horrible sense, explained why Obi-Wan was here, alive, and yet nobody had known.
"Not even my name." He hesitated before asking, "You said... Obi-Wan?"
"Yeah. That's you. Obi-Wan Kenobi." This was probably the most surreal thing Anakin had ever experienced, and that was saying something. He reached out in the Force, needing to feel his master, confirm he was real somehow, but ran up against the same barrier he'd felt initially. Anakin frowned, pushing a little against Obi-Wan's shields. "Why are you hiding?"
"Excuse me?"
The confusion on Obi-Wan's face was sincere, even if Anakin could only feel the barest hint of him in the Force. Was it possible Obi-Wan could have forgotten the Force? He shook his head. "Never mind."
"Would it be odd if I asked your name?"
"Very odd. I'm Anakin Skywalker."
"Anakin." Obi-Wan smiled at him, eyes never leaving his face. "Pleased to meet you?"
You're a Jedi, too? Pleased to meet you.
Anakin had to choke down a slightly hysterical laugh. "Yeah, you too. I-" Anakin caught himself in the middle of reaching for his master. Pulling his hand back abruptly, he crossed his arms. "Holy kriff. What happened? How long have you been on Centares? Are you okay? I mean - aside from the, uh, amnesia or whatever?"
"I've been here for most of what I can remember. Look-" Obi-Wan held up a hand when he saw Anakin open his mouth again. "You clearly have questions, and I assure you I have more than you. Are you - Do you want to come back to my house? This might be a long conversation."
Somehow the idea of Obi-Wan having a house came as a shock. "Sure, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Do you-"
"Are you-"
They looked at each other, smiling suddenly at the absurdity.
"Do you have a speeder?" Obi-Wan asked.
Anakin's smile widened into a grin. "A speeder bike."
"Good - I live in the Skrell District."
"Never heard of it."
"It's not very close, I'm afraid. Do you know where the main gate of the market district is?"
"Yes."
"Meet me there, and you can follow me."
Anakin hesitated. Obi-Wan had been about to turn, but then paused and regarded him curiously. "Is there a problem?"
Ducking his head, Anakin admitted, "I - you won't just - disappear again, if I take my eyes off you? I thought -" His voice caught, and Anakin cleared his throat. Obi-Wan didn't even know him. "I thought you were dead."
"I'll be there." Obi-Wan put his hand on Anakin's arm, a smile clear in his voice, and Anakin had to look up. "I've lived a whole life, and lost it. You think I'm not eager to get it back? You're the first person I've met who knows me - I don't want to lose you, either."
Anakin only nodded, not trusting himself to speak. He sprinted all the way back to his speeder bike.