Obi-wan reached for the door, hand raised to knock, and instead nearly rapped Mel on the nose as she preemptively opened it. They had the routine down pat, and she'd sensed him anyway.

It was a nice, comradely silence as they made their way to the beach, each thinking their own thoughts. The morning dueling was the best way to wake up in Mel's opinion. She always lost, obviously, but he had to try more and more often, instead of just fluffing her off.

But this morning neither of them were quite their normal light-hearted selves, what they knew and what they didn't about the fiasco of the night before uncomfortable.

Mel had distanced herself, stalking him, when she unexpectedly missed the ground, and slid down the side of the small sand dune. Regaining her balance, with an air of pretending it had all been intentional, she looked about at the dip she'd fallen down, where it leveled to the sea.

Altogether it would have been a rather pretty scene in the early-morning sun, all glittery and shining, had not something been so very drastically wrong. There was a cloak, vaguely familiar in its anonymity, lying trampled in sand marred by scuffled footsteps.

This would have been intriguing enough, but not nearly as alarming, had not there been a pair of bodies. One's head was twisted at recognizably unnatural angle, the other's face streaked with blood as his chest had been compressed nastily, snapping ribs and puncturing organs.

"Obi-wan!" she called, loud as she dared, wanting his attention and no one else's, voice not prey to the creeping fear setting in…

He glided into place at the top of the dip, looking vaguely superior and all knowing. "Really, I thought you'd be better than such an old tactic…" His voice trailed off, half-grin replaced by a concerned seriousness.

"Its Katie, isn't it?" Mel commented, backing away from the bloody sand she'd been nearly standing on.

"I would assume so." He replied, feeling rather confusingly mixed emotions. First, he was rather happy that the girl hadn't gone and slept with Vader last night, he was very concerned for her safety at the hands of what had to be the Resistance, he was concerned for his own safety at the hands of what would be a very put-out Vader, and he was concerned for Mel. This was not going to be fun for her either…

"What do we do?"

He sighed. "We tell him, get yelled at, and then hope it's for ransom." And his morning had started out rather well too… He hated his life sometimes, he really did.

- - -

Anakin was lounging about rather sullenly; dangling the diamond on its chain and watching it glitter in what light he permitted to penetrate the gloomy depths of his angst. He wasn't in a foul mood so much as unstable, as likely to fly off the handle as to laugh until he cried. The self-imposed loneliness had been oppressive with guilt, and as much as he thought they were both overreacting such an altercation after so long in general peace… it was simply stunning in comparison. He had not gotten much sleep, unaccustomed to the emptiness beside him

So he was not in the right frame of mind for visitors when the knock came. "No." he called imperiously, as if presuming to know what they had come for. "Leave me."

"Open the door." Obi-wan's voice was by nature was less imperious, though the gravity replacing his usual cheer was chilling.

Anakin, more out of wishing for someone to blame, complied. He hid the necklace first, however, not wanting his brooding to be seen as weakness. "What is so important that it could not wait until after breakfast?" he was even less happy when it truly turned out to be Obi-wan interrupting him.

Mel lurked uncomfortably behind Obi-wan, feeling out of place. She was really only there as a sort of insurance, and so had no expected role except that as witness.

"With you there, he won't be able to get really mad at me, because then he'd have to kill you too, and then Katie wouldn't particularly like that," Was his theory.

Obi-wan did not give any more time for suspense, and was rather blunt about it all. "It's Katie. She's been taken by the Resistance."

"What?" Anakin did not sound angry, nor afraid just yet, only sharply uncomprehending.

Obi-wan relayed the story in its entirety, such earnest seriousness nearly out of character. He seemed genuinely concerned, which should not have been unusual, though Mel had a sense that it was due to some big-picture reason of his own.

Anakin took it as well as could be expected, more disbelieving than anything. This was precisely why he's bothered to set out a guard… only he seemed to have lost this game of roulette, and had picked the traitor. The man was lucky he'd run off with the rest, else he'd be dying the worst, slowest death Anakin could devise…

"Well, what are you waiting for?" he spoke at last, having lapsed into silence, the others looking at him expectantly. "Get me the governor of this hellhole. We're going to find her." The ending 'and they are going to learn the meaning of pain' was unspoken, but understood by all. There was a penalty to pay for angering the Empire, and he was going to have fun enforcing it.

Of course, the odds of Katie actually surviving being used as such a high-stakes bargaining chip was not mentioned either.

- - -

Mel waited until they had left the chamber before turning to Obi-wan, opening her mouth to speak.

He held up a hand, shushing her before she had chance to utter a sound, waiting… and then he heard it, the sound he'd been waiting from. From inside the other room they could hear a muffled crashing shatter, as though something porcelain and expensive had exploded. "I knew it…" he murmured to himself. It would be better if he and Mel were the only ones to relay messages, anyone more expendable and bearing bad news would likely find their head exploding in the vase's stead. "But yes?"

"How exactly are they going to try to find her?" Mel asked, unfamiliar with what would undoubtedly be a high-tech method of detection.

He quirked a sardonic half-smile. "The hard way: by hand. Most locals can only be trusted to be Resistance, and if they mean any sort of business, which they must, they'll be cloaked. Somewhere in the forest most likely, though that just makes things even more difficult." He swept along the curving, slate-colored halls, with her unceremoniously in tow.

Mel followed quietly, thinking to herself. How was it that the only hostage for which Vader actually gave a damn had been out in the open, when the only guards possible to be present had been spies without some sort of deeper connection? And why had it been that the only time Vader had ever looked at another woman in public so (at least as far as she knew; it was impossible to know when this clandestine relationship had even begun) was somewhere with such perfect conditions? Obviously it had been a real inside job, with someone close enough to the top to arrange all this…

Struck by a momentary paranoia, she shivered. She was fairly sure Obi-wan was Resistance… could he have been involved? It was a deeply unsettling thought, and she shoved it away for a later, less charged time.

- - -

Katie, when she finally awoke, had an absolutely awful case of dry-mouth. Of course, that wasn't the first thing she noticed. That was the fact that she couldn't breathe.

Gasping and choking, she hacked herself back into reality. Something was tight about her neck, and something else was keeping her from breathing in all the way… Her eyes were open, but the expanse of character-less sand beneath her knees that was all she could focus on was no help.

In the midst of yet another labored breath, she realized something far more unsettling then that. She didn't fill her skin any more! What ease of movement, breath and power she had experienced since leaving the static of her homeland was gone, as was The Force!

Snapping her head up, breathing finally under control, she glared about at the myriad of milling men about this makeshift-looking camp. It was deep inside some coastline forest, trees vaguely reminiscent of palms. But the only real thing of interest was the man, looking entirely too pleased with himself, who was watching her rather intently. She tried to sit up straighter, but was hindered by the fact that not only had her hands been bound behind her back, they had been laced up her forearm, forcing her elbows to touch behind her back, sending lancing pains up her shoulders as she tried to move.

Her feet and mouth were free, but he was unconcerned. Jedi and their ilk were all the same… take away their Force, their power, and all the fight went out of them. The culprit of this was the grey steel band around her neck, divided through with a LCD screen, upon which a square of blue light scrolled.

He looked the average human male in his early thirties, well muscled, skin and hair dark brown. His open vest was orange, and it only brought out the tawny in his eyes. He was André, leader of the Resistance sect of Alderraan Five, and he had just scored the luckiest break of his entire life.

He grinned at her, locking eyes. The brief flash of anger in her eyes was fading to fear, as she realized just how deep in she was.

"Welcome to the Resistance," He commented, overly dramatic to a degree worthy of such a cliché. "I trust you'll enjoy your stay here."

Had she not already been seized by a creeping dread, that shark-like, pirate grin would have done it.