"It seems to me we may have met…"

"Your face is not a face I would forget…"

- Les Miserables


The brig of the flagship, The Resolute had a tile floor and gray, concrete walls. There was one overhead light, and one exit, locked and guarded from the outside. A pair of stun cuffs were currently binding Luke's wrists together. He was exhausted, and thirsty.

These truths were the easy ones. It felt good to recite them in mind, and take stock of the obvious since there was so little of it. Now for the harder ideas to grasp:

"Number one…" Luke whispered to the silence, to himself. He was aboard a battleship whose status could not accurately be defined as either ally or enemy.

"Two…" The staff was primarily composed of Clones, even though the Imperial Department of Research and Biomedicine had outlawed their synthesis after The Clone War.

"Three…" Among the commanders of said Clones was Jedi General Anakin Skywalker.

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"It was a rescue mission, Anakin and instead you galloped blindly into battle and required half the Republic Army to escape back into the Inner Rim with the hostages." Obi-Wan boarded an elevator with his former apprentice in tow.

"Are you done?" The younger man asked, pushing a button that sent the pair of them descending to the ship's lowest levels.

"No. And here you've been telling me that you're ever so ready to become a Master."

"I am ready."

"No, you are not. When you can see that, you'll be ready," Obi-Wan clipped back without missing a beat. He paused a moment, straightened his robe and looked ahead. "Now I am finished," he concluded.

Anakin scoffed and threw his gaze up to the elevator's ceiling. "Well, the mission was successful, wasn't it? You have to give me that."

"No, I do not," Obi-Wan responded, "You won today because of some...Some imposter's errant antics."

"You know, you have to ride back to Coruscant with me," Anakin half warned, half joked. "And it's a long trip."

The elevator's doors slid open, revealing the ship's humble jail cells. There were only three, and of them, only one was occupied. Instantly, Anakin laughed.

"Oh, Gods. He's just a...Kid. Cody had me thinking it was some bounty hunter." He looked at his friend, "You deal with this. I'm going to get some sleep."

The Jedi Master caught his wrist before he could pivot to leave. Focused, now rather intently on the unassuming, decidedly unthreatening and disappointingly familiar face in the jail cell, Obi-Wan greeted its owner with a sigh and the folding of his arms. "We meet again. You were unwise to leave the medical bay. You must realize, now that you will be tried for impersonating an officer and federal trespass. Most unwise, indeed."

The boy behind bars, hardly over twenty was ashen blonde and blue-eyed, the picture of a youthful innocent and a real shame to incarcerate. Some people could not be helped, Obi-Wan mused. Still, there was something familiar about him, beyond their previous meeting in the recovery room.

"What is your name?" Anakin rolled his eyes but did not deter Obi-Wan's questioning, "And where do you come from?"

"M-...Um. Ahem. My name is...Luke, sir," he answered nervously, and Obi-Wan began to wonder if he was under the influence of some hallucinogenic drug, for he seemed slightly delirious and quite confused. "I was from Tatooine...Originally."

"I see. Well, Luke. This is my counterpart, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and I am…" Immediately, he lost Luke's attention.

The man in question had crept forward across the floor of his jail cell, on his knees and now leaned directly against the bars, one set of fingers wrapping around them. As though mesmerized, he stared at Anakin, who's casual dismissal was slowly settling into vague discomfort.

"It seems you have an admirer," Obi-Wan murmured to the general, dry as ever.

Anakin shifted his weight. "With your obvious breaches in mind, Luke we are thankful for your effort today- What…How exactly did you intervene?" He asked.

Luke's eyes widened a bit. Obi-Wan recognized this as an internal "Oh, shit," for his ex Padawan was, a time ago, famous for such expressions.

"I just...I had a thought, and…" He was clearly struggling for an explanation.

Anakin's wrist comlink beeped twice. Time to go. He nodded at Obi-Wan who looked down at Luke once more with a cool tone, "We will return, I'm sure. In the meantime, rest."

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"He's force-sensitive," Anakin told Obi-Wan, the moment they once again entered the elevator, and once the doors closed on them.

"I felt it, too," he answered. "We will bring it before the Council. Heavens know who he really is, or worse, who he's with."

Anakin nodded. He hadn't been looking for one, but even in that small span of time with Luke, or whatever his name really was, he could not deny the connection he felt with him in the vibrations of the Force. There was something about his face, or the personality behind it that he was sure he knew, somehow. But then, maybe only in a dream.


Author's Note Thanks for reading, as always. Reviews give me life.

Love,

BT