The first section is reposted from day one because I added quite a bit.

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Obi-Wan leaned against the entryway of the sickbay and watched his Padawan with blazing eyes.  Anakin was bent over the half-conscious slave girl, dabbing her throat with salve and cleaning her putrid, oozing wounds.  Clearly in agony, she could do little more than clutch Anakin's knee with white knuckled fingers.  His face was focused and intense, flushed with anger.  Every so often he would noticeably flinch - his fingers were covered in shining crimson burns and seeping blisters. 

Obi-Wan watched them curiously.  Anakin's wounded fingers dabbed at her ravaged neck; almost as if they shared the same wound; and Obi-Wan's chest constricted with anxiety.  Anakin gingerly addressed a particularly raw section of her wounds, and she moaned incomprehensibly in pain.  For a moment she met Anakin's gaze, and Obi-Wan watched as they seemed to exchange some sort of subliminal empathy that he could not comprehend.   Then her head fell back and she fainted.   Anakin dressed her wounds as carefully as he could and finally stood to address his Master.

"Is there something you wish to say to me, Master?"  Anakin did not look up, instead he stared at the wall above Reysuu's bunk.

Obi-Wan's left eyebrow shot up and he readjusted himself in the doorway.  "There are a great deal of things I wish to say to you Anakin, but none of it will reach your stubborn ears."

Anakin's jaw worked silently, he glanced ad Obi-Wan and looked away again, glanced back, turned away.  Finally, he moved for the door and knocked past Obi-Wan, closing the sickbay door behind them.   He faced Obi-Wan but still refused to look at him squarely, his eyes darting angrily over every surface of the corridor.

"What was I supposed to do?"  He hissed, voice seething with frustration.

"You were supposed to listen to me.  You were supposed to place the needs of a million free citizens of the Republic above the life of a single slave!" He tried to keep his voice even and controlled, but Obi-Wan knew that his frustration was seeping through.

Anakin met his eyes for a moment, his face blazing with emotion.  "You wanted me to let her die!"

"Anakin, there are bigger things for us to look after!  Have you already forgotten the Sith?  Has it already slipped your mind that Sabe died mere hours ago and that the Queen's life is in immediate danger?  Or perhaps you have failed to recall that your actions have shattered a fragile diplomatic truce and may have just singlehandedly toppled the Republic!  I see... now I can easily understand how the suffering of one single slave could have made you utterly loose your senses!"

"That's how you feel about slaves?  Had Qui-Gon lost his senses when he rescued me from slavery?"

They both knew that Anakin had struck a nerve, and they stared at one another, unsure of how to proceed.

"Those circumstances were vastly different.  Don't hasten to draw faulty conclusions.  Not all slaves can be freed, not every life can be spared."  Obi-Wan sighed and leaned against the corridor wall, putting a balled fist to his creased forehead.  "I thought you understood this... the Jedi live a life of sacrifice, compromise and diplomacy.  We are not driven by uncontrollable empathy!"

"But she was suffering!  Dying before our eyes!  Is a Jedi supposed to stand by and let the innocent suffer?"

"People suffer and die every second of every day, Anakin.  We cannot sidestep the Order and our responsibilities to the Republic in order to shirk death and pain.  You must understand that."  After a moment of reflection he added, "and do not assume that she is an innocent victim.  We have no idea what sort of creature she is."

"She's not a creature, she's a human being.  And slave or not, human life is worth something."

Seeing that he was going to get nowhere, Obi-Wan relented for the moment, cosigning himself to deal with his Apprentice when he was in a more reasonable state.  "We will discuss this later, Anakin.  For now, please clear your mind of this and get some rest."  In his mind he added, 'you'll need to it to explain this to the council... we both will.'

Though he looked like he wanted to say a great deal more, Anakin could not seem to find the appropriate words and so he also relented; turning away and heading down the corridor towards the cockpit.  Obi-Wan could hear the faint voice of Padme and hoped that the Queen would avoid the topic of their new passenger, for the sake of everyone onboard.

Obi-Wan leaned further into the curving corridor wall, pressing his fist firmly to his brow as if in an effort to push away his thoughts; his dark, anxious thoughts.  He could not avoid the feeling that something was going wrong - something beyond the obvious explosion of failure of the anahialated treaty.  He knew that the Sith was involved in this entire mishap - knew that she had intended for Anakin to go berserk and sever the truce, perhaps she knew his apathy could be exploited; a thought that gave Obi-Wan no comfort.  But there was something else; he knew that the Sith witch and the slave girl were connected, that Reysuu had also been part of this awful set up.  Obi-Wan only wished he could foresee whatever consequences were hurtling their way.  No doubt there would be a lot of clean up negotiations about the damned treaty, but beyond that everything was quite hazy and decidedly grim looking.

After a moment's consideration, Obi-Wan opened the sick-bay portal and slowly stepped toward the still-unconscious Reysuu.  As he considered her, it struck him how familiar she seemed, and likewise how dangerous.  A very instinctual sort of feeling was urging him not to let Anakin get to close to her, to keep the two of them at a distance from one another.  He could not really understand the feeling or even justify it, and he knew bringing it up would only aggravate his Apprentice further. 

Deeply engulfed in his thoughts, he was startled when Reysuu coughed weakly and groggily opened her eyes to look at him.  His posture didn't change even in his surprise, and he stared down at her, arms crossed, face stern.

"Heard what you said..." she murmured, her words barely audible over the rasping wheeze of her damaged voice.  Obi-Wan fidgeted uncomfortably.  Though he was resolute concerning what he had said to Anakin, he was not sure what to say to the person he had condemned moments before for merely being saved from death.

"You were right-" she coughed, a bit of blood staining her lip.  "I should have died... should have died there."   She squeezed her eyes shut and hissed as she turned her head a few millimeters to look him in the eyes.  Astounded by her reaction, he leaned over her a bit more and bent his neck to get a better view of her expression.  They looked at each other for a while, a silent communion of very little except a shred of mutual understanding.  Finally she spoke again, even more weakly than before.

"Should have died there... no place for me now."  She coughed again, more blood rattling through her teeth.  "What am I supposed to do?"  She smiled cruelly, looking deranged.  She made a sound somewhere between a cough, a laugh and a sob and nearly seemed to choke on her own blood, but after a moment she relaxed and slumped into the mattress.  Once more she glanced up at him and muttered softly, "sorry... wish you'd never met me..."

He wasn't sure if it was a personal statement or a question for him, but he was saved the awkwardness of replying when she appeared to lapse back into unconsciousness again. Obi-Wan turned away from her, the anxious feeling in his gut having now doubled.

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The girl was off him faster than you could say, 'this ship's quick, slick,' and in an instant she was crouched defensively and holding a jagged knife in her hand.  Where the knife had come from was an utter mystery to Obi-Wan, but he was glad she'd mysteriously conjured it because two twi'lek girls and a unpleasant assortment of gammoreans and helmeted henchmen were lurking in the doorway.

The posse shifted and pushed forward to figures, which the twi'leks and their companions held fast.  Obi-Wan sighed inaudibly when he saw that it was without a doubt Anakin and Padme in disguise. 

Luckily, Obi-Wan understood enough basic Huttese to understand what was was being said, and the rest he was able to gather by sensing the rather spirited emotions flying about the room.

"These two are looking for Tarlan Voss!"  Hissed one of the identical twi'leks.

"Never heard of him."  said Reysuu poisonously.

"I think you have," said the other, and she threw an assortment of stolen identification cards at Reysuu.  She cautiously gathered them up and looked at Voss' picture.  A flash of recognition flit across her face, quickly suppressed.

"I've never seen this man before.  Whoever these idiots are, its got nothing to do with me.  Get out of my chambers, NOW."  She flashed the knife dangerously, whizzing it past the twi'lek's dainty ankles.

"Who is that?"  asked one of the girls menacingly, pointing at Obi-Wan.  Anakin, Padme and Obi-Wan were all trying very hard not to look at one another and still try to communicate some sort of plan of escape.

"Don't be thick, you know perfectly well.  Now get out."

"But we have just checked with Lord Mondula," bit one. 

"he says that he has sent no one to your chambers.  He has arranged no meeting for you today." jeered the other.

This news clearly came as a shock to Reysuu, because she dropped her guard for the briefest second.  But even that was enough time for the twi'leks to seize her and bind her with manacles.  One of them hit her squarely in the jaw and the other kneed her in the back; and she collapsed on the floor, her breath stolen away.  When she tried to stand again, grimacing with unrestrained anger, one of the henchmen in the doorway extracted a small remote and clicked a button which caused her slave collar to crackle and fizz with energy.  She sunk to the floor, gritting her teeth; unable to scream out.

One of the twi'lek's grabbed Reysuu's hair and yanked back her head.  The collar fizzled for a few seconds more and then relented.  Though Reysuu made no audible sound, she swallowed thickly and a tear trickled unbidden from her blazingly angry eyes.

The other twi'lek began tearing through the chamber in search of something.  It was not long until she found what she was looking for - credits.  All sorts of credits from all sorts of systems, hidden amongst the cushions and rugs.  Reysuu's eyes widened in shock, her mouth going slack for a moment before tightening into a ferocious scowl.   The twi'lek gripping her hair tore her head back and hissed, "what is the meaning of this, Reysuu?"

Reysuu tried to throw the twi'lek off - and actually managed to flip the yellow-skinned slave to the floor and nearly kick her in the face - but the collar was activated again and Reysuu fell to the floor in throws of agony.  The twi'lek with the credits threw them in her face and wrenched her to her feet again before shoving her to the gamorreans. 

With Reysuu successfully apprehended, the twi'leks turned on Obi-Wan.  Since he could do nothing that wouldn't seriously expose himself and compromise the Queen's safety, Obi-Wan remained calm and submissive while they searched he robes.  As expected, they took his lightsaber and some of the more useless things on his utility belt.  But inexplicably, they found plastic credits in his robes - credits that he himself had never put there. 

Knowing now that the Sith had sprung her trap without even being present, Obi-Wan grit his teeth and endured as a pair of Mondula's grotty henchmen took hold of him and hauled him to his feet.  The time for action would come later; probably in the very arena that had been the backdrop for the Sith's skillful distraction and baiting.  All together, the pitiful band was hauled away, presumably to face the jaws of several ravenous and agitated beasts.

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"How closely have you studied the prophecy of the Two Suns?" Windu considered Obi-Wan through his steepled fingers, his face neutral.

Obi-Wan was silent for a moment, surprised by the question. "It speaks of the struggle between Light and Dark, and of the One who will bring balance to the Force."

"More than one interpretation, there may be," murmured Yoda softly.

The chamber was silent for a moment.  Even the other Council members seemed surprised by this statment.  Obi-Wan spoke slowly, in doubt.

"There are others?"

Depa Billaba offered an explanation, remaining charicteristically wise and withdrawn.

"The prophecy has long been in question.  Though wise and far-seeing, Master Ru'matii was also cryptic and vague.  Through the millenia the Council has never settled on one absolute interpretation.  But the majority have always believed that the two suns referred to a pair of Sith; Master and Apprentice, and that the chosen one would be a lone Jedi, selected to oppose them."  she paused and considered the Jedi Masters surrounding her before continuing.  "But there are those who believe that the prophecy foretells the fall of the Jedi Order and of the destruction of peace in the galaxy.  In this interpretation, the suns are not believed to be Sith warriors, but something else."

"What then?"

Billaba shook her head and Windu continued in her place.

"It has been impossible to guess until now.  When young Anakin Skywalker was brought before us we naturally assumed he was the chosen One spoken of in the prophecy.  He displayed an unusual affinity to the Force, and a potential for greatness which the Council has not encountered for several thousand years.  But now you bring before us this girl.  We are sure you have noticed -"

Taken aback, Obi-Wan interrupted, "Forgive me Master Windu, but I am not sure I know what you mean.  She is certainly Sensitive, but beyond that..."
 
Ki-Adi-Mundi spoke compassionately, his soft voice making Obi-Wan turn his head.

"We understand that you may be denying your true feelings because it would put Anakin in an even more precarious position.  But you know as well as - if not far better than the Council - that this girl is equal to your Apprentice in nearly every way.  She shows enormous potential and her connection to the Force is matched only by Skywalker himself."

Insulted, Obi-Wan quickly said, "If you think this is a matter of jealousy, Coucil -"

Mundi held up a placating hand.

"No, assuredly not.  It is a matter of trepidation.  For all of us.  If this girl does indeed prove to be Anakin's equal, then we have been mistaken in our decision to train him as the Chosen One."

Obi-Wan found himself at a painful loss for words, but when none of the Council members continued, he forced himself to ask,

"You think they are the twin suns spoken of in the prophecy?  Anakin and this stranger?"
 
Practical and informative, Windu declared,

"We will need to do a wide array of tests, including extensive genetic screenings."

"Genetic screenings?  What would be the point, MasterWindu?  The chances of them being related, even distantly, is preposterously unlikely."  Obi-Wan tried to sound calm and neutral, but he knew most of his words were coming out more and more skeptically.

"Actually, Obi-Wan, it is not unlikely at all.  Master Gallia has some information which you might fight compelling."  Windu nodded towards Gallia, who removed from her robes a holopad.  She fiddled with it for a moment and handed it to Obi-Wan.

"Anakin's biological mother was sold to Tatooine's Gardulla the Hutt right around the time of his birth.   She was bartered by a figure you are unfortunately now quite familiar with; her previous owner, Mondula."

 Obi-Wan stared at the file in his hands, which confirmed everything Gallia had just said with numerous transaction records and bartering slips.

"H-How do you know this?" he sputtered carelessly.  "Why?"

Gallia did not seem surprised by Obi-Wan's bewilderment, and explained calmly,

"The Council has kept records of Skywalker's origins - hoping to find his father and lineage.  Though we have traced Shmi Skywalker back several generations, there is absolutely no record, genetic or otherwise, of a father."

"And yet you think there is sufficient evidence to assume that this complete stranger is his sister?"

"As you can see, the Council's records do not indicate the Shmi was ever the mother of any child - it is our belief that her pregnancy was neglected in the documents in order to make her seem more valuable.  But our genetic evidence leaves no doubt that she is Skywalker's biological parent.  Pregnant Huttese dancing girls are usually murdered, but it is likely that the female child was bartered for Shmi's release.  If you look there, you can also see that we have found evidence of a fantastic sum of money which was exchanged underhandedly.  Who this mysterious benefactor was it is impossible to say, but without a doubt it is because of that money that Shmi and her children survived."

"Forgive my directness, but you expect me to look at few shady Huttese documents and suddenly believe that my Apprentice has a long-lost sister?  He has never once mentioned a lost sibling, and I can think of no reason he would have witheld such critical information from me."

"Nor do we believe he has been dishonest." ammended Windu.  "It is likely that Anakin never knew of his sister; at the moment of her birth she was probably surrendered to the Hutts and never heard from again.  As we all have seen they clearly have no memory of one another."  He looked at Obi-Wan squarely.  "But will you try to deny the obvious bond between them?  Even they are aware of it - so they spoke to us."

"I do not deny - but I cannot... it is not..."  Obi-Wan had no words.  "I need time to consider this revelation."

"Of course.  But in the meantime you must not speak of this to Skywalker."

Angrily Obi-Wan lashed, "Is it not his right to know?" shocked by his outburst he quickly added, "forgive me, Council.  But would it not be more... moral... to give Anakin this information?"

"And what of the girl?  Are you so anxious to reveal the truth to her?"

Obi-Wan sighed, defeated.

"You must be patient, Obi-Wan.  The Council will reveal the truth to your Apprentice at the proper time.  For now, continue teaching and guiding him as if nothing has changed.  We will decide the matter of his expulsion after the tests have been completed."

"And what of the girl?  What do I do about her?"

"Queen Amidala has conferred with me personally.  She expressed a desire to take the girl for a guardian.  For now this will do, but we will not let her far from the Council's watch - her fate is undetermined."

Obi-Wan nodded curtly and was dismissed by the Council.  He walked from the chamber with uniquely disturbed thoughts.

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