Chapter Text
Anakin inspected the part in his hand, turning it over and over again.
There wasn't anything remarkable about it- durasteel with nuts and bolts holding some plates together. There was a small groove in one of the plates where a small chip for a central processing unit could have been stored, but it was empty.
And Anakin knew why- he had removed it before they had gone on their last mission in order to try and put the chip somewhere else.
He turned the part over in his hand again, his mind briefly straying back to his room in the temple, where Ahsoka sat on his bed, playing with the same droid part.
A part of him wondered if she knew that he was watching her. Another part of him wondered how much of his stuff had she touched, and if she had moved anything that she shouldn't have.
And then, he wondered what would happen if he dropped it.
Would it go back to his room? Would Ahsoka find it laying on the ground where she had left it?
Or would it stay here, and splash against the water that was lapping up against Anakin's boots with each step that he took.
He had no idea. But, he wanted to find out.
Slowly, Anakin uncurled his fingers from around the part, and watched as it fell out of his palm and onto the ground.
For a moment, it stayed there, and the water rippled around it, creating rings of light that flowed outwards in every direction.
And then, shortly afterwards, the part vanished.
But the ripples remained.
R2 beeped in alarm beside Anakin, but Anakin couldn't take his eyes away from the ripples that continued to expand outwards, watching as they moved towards the horizon of... wherever he was.
"Me too, buddy," Anakin muttered as he looked onward.
"Master," Ahsoka said as she looked over at Obi-Wan.
They were in the temple's library, and shelves of HoloBooks towered far above their heads.
In front of them were computers, with an entire galaxy's worth of knowledge inside of them. Knowledge that wasn't censored, of course.
But still, nothing about what Obi-Wan wanted to find. What he wanted to read
He could be anywhere in the galaxy, have access to as little or as much information as he pleased, but it still didn't lead him anywhere closer to where Anakin had gone.
Or if there was any way to bring him back.
His eyes glazed over as he continued to scan the words and letters on the screen, his brain not making any sense of them as his thoughts continued to wander and think about other things.
Like back when times were simple, and it was just him and an over-eager, padawan who had his whole life ahead of him.
Although, in terms of being over-eager, Ahsoka rivaled Anakin in that department, especially at the age of fifteen.
"Master," Ahsoka repeated this time, and Obi-Wan blinked and looked away from the screen and at her.
The blue light that the HoloBooks and the screens gave off reflected in her eyes, and it reminded Obi-Wan of the lessons he learned about stars when he was a youngling.
Blue stars were the hottest, burned the brightest, and died the fastest.
He hoped that Ahsoka didn't share the same fate.
"Padawan," Obi-Wan replied, and Ahsoka looked away for a moment and then back at him.
"I was thinking, that we haven't seen R2 since Master Skywalker disappeared," she began and Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow.
"Go on," Obi-Wan said as a spark of hope filled his heart.
But all he did was raise an eyebrow.
"Shouldn't that mean that they're together?" Ahsoka asked and then leaned forward with a grin on her face.
"It should..." Obi-Wan replied as he ran a hand through his beard and thought about Ahsoka's words more carefully.
"Are you suggesting that we try and reach out to R2 somehow?" Obi-Wan asked and Ahsoka nodded eagerly.
"We don't know where either of them are- how are we supposed to send out some sort of signal?" Obi-Wan asked and Ahsoka shrugged.
"I dunno, but I'm sure that Skyguy probably has something kicking around- at least some kind of tracker on R2."
Obi-Wan abruptly shut off the screen in front of them, and stood up, Ahsoka quickly following after him.
"So, we're going to find that tracker?" She asked and Obi-Wan nodded.
"How else are we going to get their coordinates?" Obi-Wan replied as they ran towards the nearest lift.
When they entered Anakin's room again, both of their mouths opened in shock.
"What... what happened?" Ahsoka asked as she looked around, her eyes wide.
The droid part from earlier was on the floor again, and with it were many other parts. Nuts and screws and bolts and washers littered the ground in front of them, and she made a move to step forward, but Obi-Wan pulled her back.
"Look," Obi-Wan said, his voice hardly louder than a whisper.
"They're in some sort of pattern."
Ahsoka blinked and tilted her head to the side slight, her lekku and padawan beads swaying with the movement.
And then, after a moment, her eyes widened as she realized that Obi-Wan was right- the scrap bits and pieces were in some sort of pattern.
Circles and arches, expanding out from one after the other as if they were ripples in a pond from where a stone had just been dropped.
And at the center of where the ripples were forming, was the droid part from earlier.
Ahsoka took a tentative step forward, watching as the metal parts of the floor scattered and moved around her, as if she were wading through water.
They formed their own ripples as she continued towards the center of the pattern, and they continued to shift outwards, as if she were parting a sea.
She stopped once she reached the center of the pattern, where the droid part was from earlier, and picked it up again.
In the groove that had been empty- the groove that was the perfect size for a central processing unit, there was something there.
it glowed softly, and it reminded Ahsoka of what a normal central processing unit would look like, only it was... glowing, and had markings on it that she didn't recognize.
And then she touched it- softly at first, and watched as a map was displayed in front of her.
"Master," Ahsoka whispered in awe.
"The map isn't complete," Obi-Wan noted with a heavy voice.
"Then," Ahsoka began as she turned to face him with a grin on her face and the same blue light reflecting in her eyes from earlier.
"We'll have to complete it."