Anakin woke with a start, alarm ringing through his head. Dooku had taken his lightsaber! He jumped to his feet, lost his balance, and staggered back against a cold wall, where he leaned unsteadily. His eyes didn't seem to be focusing properly.

He blinked hard and opened them again. Grey filled his vision. Grey walls, grey floor, grey ceiling – the only light came from a flickering yellow glowpanel, just outside the barred door. His face felt tight, and when he brushed at it, he realized that the lower half was covered in dried blood. His nose, when he felt it, was not broken, but it hurt as much as if it had been.

Groaning, he rubbed his forehead and realized that his hands were locked together with handcuffs. Great. He was a prisoner of Dooku – again – and he didn't know where he was, or where his enemy was. He attempted to reach out and locate Dooku, but his mind felt like it was made of cobwebs. Shaking his head didn't help. There must be something about the cell that was blocking his Force abilities. Or – that Dathomirian, and the dark, shadowy fog. He was probably suffering residual effects from whatever that had been.

Since there was nothing else to do, Anakin pounded on the door a few times, tried to remove his handcuffs, which were electronically locked, and paced. As time passed and he grew more irritated, he added muttering to his repertoire of things to do.

"How did Dooku beat me that fast?" he groused. He turned on his heel, jerking at the cuffs again, before remembering that Rex and Jesse had been with him. "Huh. Maybe they're in the next cell."

He hoped they were, because if they weren't, they were dead. Dooku didn't leave enemies alive – though he could have killed Sergeant Boomer and the other two, and he hadn't. And what about Obi-Wan and the others? If everything had gone well, they'd have caught Ventress and left the planet. Which meant he'd have to find a way out of here himself. Maybe there was a guard he could grab.

When he peered through the bars, however, the only person in sight was at the far end of the hall, well out of reach – an orange-skinned Twi'lek with black tattoos on his forehead and lower neck. Nothing near the door was of any use. There was a control panel, which he couldn't reach; and a data port, which he could reach but which wouldn't be of any use unless he had some computer spikes.

He paced a bit more. If Obi-Wan had been here, he would be telling Anakin to sit down and be quiet. Anakin ignored the imagined advice for a while, but soon he realized that he'd need to save his energy if he wanted to escape.

No sooner had he slumped down against the back corner of the room, where he could easily watch the door, then there was the loud thumping of a door slamming open, and a muttered conversation. His interest piqued, he crept to the door and looked out.

Two figures – a Weequay and a Rodian – propped up a human in drab clothes between them as they spoke to the orange man.

They seemed to disagree for a moment before the Twi'lek spoke with a strong accent, gesturing towards Anakin's cell. "Put him with the other. They'll be easier to watch that way, no?"

The Weequay grunted. Anakin ducked back against the wall, waiting tensely as the footsteps drew nearer. If he timed it just right –

The door hissed open. Anakin jumped forward, his hands smashing into the Rodian's face. As the short alien staggered back, he spun to face the Weequay, who had dropped his prisoner and was grabbing for a gun. Anakin lashed out once, twice, darted out of the path of a hastily fired shot, spun on his heel, and kicked him squarely in the head. Another swift kick put the Rodian flat on his back.

Anakin snatched at the gun.

A hard blow connected with his chest, knocking him backwards into the cell. He sat up with a gasp.

"Not so fast, my Jedi friend," said the Twi'lek easily, kicking the Rodian's arm out of the door and pressing a button on the small remote. A ray shield filled the doorway. "The Count wants you here, and here you shall stay."

The red shield buzzed tauntingly. Enraged, Anakin slammed his fists into it. A jolt of electricity made him stagger. The Weequay and the Rodian had gotten up and were glaring at him, but the Twi'lek waved them away. After they had stomped off, the orange alien glanced back at him.

"Who are you?" Anakin growled, furious at having been stopped so close to his escape.

"Does it make a difference?"

"Yes, actually, it does." Anakin smiled unpleasantly. "I wouldn't want to go after the wrong Twi'lek when I get out of here."

"Ah. In that case, since there are so many orange Twi'leks around. . ."

Anakin rolled his eyes.

"My name is Tar Saresh. I am in charge of the Cauldron. Now, step back toward the wall."

Anakin stared at him. "What's the Cauldron?"

"You're in it. Wall, now." He tapped his remote. "Unless you want me to shock you into oblivion first."

"No, thanks all the same." Anakin walked to the far wall and waited, readying himself to jump the instant the shield was deactivated.

Tar Saresh shook his head at him as though disappointed. "I'm not so foolish as that, Skywalker."

"I – what?"

Anakin's arms were jerked up abruptly, his handcuffs attaching magnetically to the wall. The shield was deactivated, and the Twi'lek grabbed the unconscious prisoner by his wrists and dragged him in. With a smile that showed his pointed teeth, Tar Saresh left. The door shut, and the shield flickered on just outside it.

"Wait!" shouted Anakin.

Tar Saresh paused, glancing over his shoulder. "Yes?"

"Can you at least detach these cuffs from the wall?" Anakin hated to beg, but his shoulders were already aching from the strain, and he knew he'd be incapable of moving his arms in a very short time. And there was another prisoner to consider now. He peered at the crumpled form across from him, but the light was too dim to see much.

"I suppose I could," the Twi'lek replied. "It is true that the Count won't be pleased if you aren't useful to him."

"What is this, some sort of slaver camp?"

"If it were, you'd be in processing." His teeth glinted again. "And trust me, that would be much less . . . pleasant. Not that you'd know about that."

"I would, actually," snapped Anakin. "What does Dooku want me for?"

"Something that he thinks of as important, I would presume." With that useless bit of information, he left, clicking the remote so that Anakin's arms were freed from the wall.

Anakin flexed his shoulders and moved over to the prisoner. "You can wake up now," he said, rolling the man onto his back. "I –" The light fell on his face, and Anakin stared at the man's familiar scar. "How'd you end up here?"

"What –" Hazy eyes stared back at him for a moment before a flash of recognition cleared them. "General Skywalker?"

"Yeah, it's me. Maybe you can tell me what's going on here."

Cody sat up slowly, leaning against the wall as he glanced around the room. "Where are we, sir?"

"The Cauldron, whatever that is." Anakin sat back on his heels. "I know Dooku captured me, but what about you? Where's Obi-Wan?"

"I don't know, sir. He was looking for you. I was trailing him, and he'd just entered a large building –" Cody shook his head a little. "It must have been a stun shot."

"You can't have been out for very long, then," said Anakin. "You don't feel drugged or anything?"

"No, sir."

"So you must have been out for three or four minutes." Anakin frowned. "I wonder if we're in that building you were talking about. Is it pretty close to the castle?"

"Yes, sir. It's long, but not very tall. I'm guessing it's a lot bigger on the inside than the outside. I noticed steps leading down from the ground level."

"I know which one you're talking about," said Anakin. "I saw it on the way in. Good."

"How does that help us, sir?"

Anakin shrugged. "If we're right, we'll at least know which way to run when we get out. I suppose they searched you?"
Cody got to his feet and checked. "Looks like it. No gun or ammo. Not that it would do any good against that shield."

"No, but we might have been able to get through these," said Anakin, glancing at his cuffs in disgust. Feeling suddenly weary, he slumped against the wall. "Did you get Ventress?"

"Yes, sir. She's in the ship, heavily sedated. Captain Rex is keeping an eye on her."

Anakin stared. "Ventress is still on the planet?"

Cody glanced sideways at him. "General Kenobi wanted us to leave, but we managed to convince him that it would be a bad idea."

"Why?" exclaimed Anakin. "Ventress is too dangerous to leave without a Jedi, he should know that. He could have come back later!"

"No, sir; he wanted us to leave. He was going to stay alone."

"Oh," said Anakin, placated. "Well, good job, then. . . But I still don't like the idea of your men on that ship with Ventress. And we still don't know where Grievous went. I don't know about you, Cody, but I have a bad feeling about this."

Cody nodded once. "What are your orders, general?"

"Well, for starters, let's try to figure out some way to get out of here before this whole mission goes to pieces."

The look that Cody gave him clearly insinuated that the mission had already gone to pieces, but all he said aloud was, "Yes, general. Any ideas?"

"No, that's why I wanted to try to figure out some." Anakin rubbed at his forehead in exasperation and bumped his sore nose. He winced. "And in case you were going to suggest using the Force, I don't think that's going to work right now."

There was a moment's silence before Cody spoke. "General Kenobi said something about your presence in the Force being clouded."

"Yeah, I'll bet," said Anakin. "It'll probably go away with time. But even if I had it – I don't know what I could do with it at the moment. There's a data port outside, but I can't manipulate data with the Force."

"A data port, sir?" said Cody. He glanced at the ray shield.

"It's inside the shield, outside the door," Anakin said, getting up and glancing out the bars again. Tar Saresh was still at the far end, working on a computer. "You know, if I had a straight piece of metal, I could try to short out the system using the ray shield's power."

"If the shield runs off the same system, that would shut it down too," said Cody.

"Exactly." Anakin looked around. "I don't see any straight metal pieces, do you?"

Cody hesitated. "The only metal in here is in those cuffs, sir – or in your hand."

Anakin blinked at him, then considered his right hand for a moment. "I hadn't thought of that," he admitted. "I'll have to touch the port and the shield at the same time."

"General," said Cody, standing up before Anakin could poke his hand out through the bars. "What if it shorts out your prosthetic as well?"

"Well, if you take care of the guard, that won't matter. . . unless it knocks me out, of course. . . Huh. I guess you're right." Anakin leaned back against the opposite wall and slid down to the ground. "Well, unless one of us thinks up something else, it looks like we're stuck until Obi-Wan gets here."

"Yes, sir."

Several long minutes passed, during which neither man moved. Finally Anakin sighed, bored with the lack of activity. "Hey, Cody, you've piloted a lot. Have you ever thought about what kind of upgrades you'd pick for a Delta-7 if you could pick any you wanted?"

The commander's eyebrow went up. "I thought the last set of upgrades you did on General Kenobi's ship worked very well, sir."

Honestly, Cody could be so boring at times. But the word 'Delta' had called something else to Anakin's mind. "I wonder if General Fisto and the commandos have finished their mission yet."

"If they have, Rex isn't going to like it." Cody smirked. "Commandos don't forget easily – not when their skill is called into question."

Anakin chuckled. "I have a feeling I won't hear the end of it from General Fisto, either. He's not as uptight as most of the Jedi Masters. I'm probably going to find myself fixing or upgrading his R6 unit next time I'm on Coruscant."

A step sounded in the hall, and Cody turned as Anakin got to his feet. Count Dooku stood just outside, gazing imperiously at them. "Skywalker," he said, nodding by way of a greeting. "Commander."

"What do you want?" demanded Anakin.

"For the moment, I simply need evidence of your incarceration." The Count held up a holorecorder and clicked it. Then, without so much as another glance, he left.

Anakin stepped up to the door, Cody beside him, and they watched as he handed the device to the Twi'lek.

"See that this is broadcast along with my message," he ordered.

"Of course, Count." Tar Saresh tapped it thoughtfully. "Is your plan still the same for those two?"

Count Dooku looked displeased. "Be assured that I will notify you if it changes."

"And the others? Can I send my men for them?"

Anakin and Cody shared a concerned glance.

"I have not forgotten my promise, Tar Saresh," the Count said warningly. "I'd rather that you killed them, but if you must take them, get rid of them tonight."

As he swept out of the room, a Weequay entered. "What are your orders, boss?"

"It's time to move in. Stun batons and lasers only, Cal. I don't like dealing with damaged merchandise."

Anakin struck the wall. "They are slavers," he hissed.

Beside him, Cody shifted. "Do you think they're talking about the Twilight, General?"

"Yes. I do. And we've got no way of warning them." He ground his teeth, glancing around the small room. "We'll have to wait for Obi-Wan – if he can get here."

I haven't seen many fics with Anakin and Cody working together (if you know of really good ones, I'd love to hear about them!), so one of the things that I wanted to put in here was a part with - you guessed it - Anakin and Cody working together. :) My main focus is that their characters ring true, so as always, if you notice something that seems inconsistent, please let me know! :)