Chapter Text
Anakin knew several things as soon as he woke up.
The first thing he knew was that his mom was dead.
The second thing was that Mister Qui-Gon was dead too.
The third thing was that Obi-Wan, Mister Qui-Gon’s kid who didn’t really seem to like him, might be the only person he had left in the whole world.
The fourth thing was that water was too precious to waste on tears.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a durasteel-gray room with rows and rows of cots on wheels. There were machines beeping softly next to him, and one of them had a sensor that was attached to his finger. Obi-Wan was on the cot next to him, still sleeping. He had beeping machines too. This was not Padmé’s ship.
A large droid was slowly rolling by the cots, observing each person in an occupied bed and skipping unoccupied beds. Anakin recognized it as a medical assistant droid, probably an FX-2 or an FX-3. He’d once fixed an FX-1 that had a faulty telescoping grasping arm, and the design looked fairly similar. He must be in some type of medical facility. Had someone blown up Padmé’s ship? He hoped Padmé was alright. She wasn’t on the ship, that’s for sure, but that was all Anakin was sure of.
The droid arrived at Anakin’s bed. “Hi,” he said. It was always polite to greet droids.
The droid observed him, then squealed in Binary, “ Cadet General is awake! ”
‘Cadet General’ clearly referred to him, but Anakin couldn’t imagine what he’d done to deserve such a designation. “I’m Anakin, actually.”
A tall man wearing white armor with blue markings stalked up behind the droid, datapad in hand. Anakin froze. He reminded Anakin of the bounty hunters and security guards that the Hutts sent around Mos Espa sometimes. Attracting the attention of people like that was never good.
“Hey, cadet,” the man said gently. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” Anakin answered promptly. He wanted the man to go away, but he didn’t want to risk making him angry.
“That’s good,” the man said. “Do you know who I am?”
“No sir,” Anakin said.
“My name is Kix, and I’m the Head Medic on this ship,” he said. “I’m going to ask you a few questions, alright?”
Anakin nodded. He wasn’t sure if he believed Mister Kix. He’d never actually seen a medic, but from what he’d heard, they don’t wear armor. Hutt space was dangerous, though. Maybe even medics needed armor in Hutt space.
“Do you know the name of this ship?” Mister Kix asked.
“No sir.”
“Do you recognize this ship as somewhere you have been before?”
“No sir.”
“What’s your name?”
“Anakin, sir.”
“Just Anakin?”
“Anakin Skywalker, sir.”
“And how old are you?”
“Nine, sir.”
“Who was your Jedi Master?”
“I don’t have one, sir. Master Qui-Gon was taking me back to the Temple.”
“Who’s the current Chancellor?”
“Um, I don’t know. I’m from Tatooine, we’re not part of the Republic. Sir.” Anakin was getting more nervous with each question. He was answering each question honestly, but Mister Kix seemed disappointed with the answers he gave.
“What year is it, then?” Mister Kix asked.
Anakin gave the year, and Mister Kix frowned deeper at that. He didn’t know the answers Mister Kix wanted, but it wasn’t the ones Anakin was giving. He wondered how many more wrong answers he could give before Mister Kix got mad at him.
Mister Kix opened his mouth to ask another question, but before he could, another voice snapped, “Who the kriff are you? ”
Anakin’s heart soared. Obi-Wan was awake!
“If you damage my equipment by trying any of your typical reckless maneuvers, General Kenobi, I’m going to sedate you,” Mister Kix said. Anakin risked a glance over. Obi-Wan didn’t have his lightsaber out, but he certainly looked ready to jump off his cot and tackle Mister Kix.
“It’s Padawan Kenobi, actually,” Obi-Wan said, and he didn’t sound scared at all . “And you haven’t answered my question.”
“I’m Chief Medical Officer Lieutenant Kix,” Mister Kix said. “And in the medbay I outrank everyone, General, so you can sit down and wait quietly for your turn.”
Mister Kix had said it so sternly Anakin flinched, and it wasn’t even directed at him.
Obi-Wan did sit down, but he didn’t look happy about it. “Never met a medic who wore armor,” he accused. “ Or one who terrorizes children.”
Mister Kix glared at Obi-Wan, but his gaze turned concerned as he looked at Anakin. Anakin tried not to squirm, he didn’t know what Mister Kix wanted from him.
“My apologies, kid,” Mister Kix said gently. “I don’t have a lot of experience working with young cadets, especially natborn ones.”
Anakin gave a nervous nod at him. He wasn’t sure how to handle a stranger apologizing to him. Only his mom had ever apologized to him before. Usually Anakin was supposed to apologize, even if it wasn’t his fault.
“I’m going to have Fixit here look you over while I talk to Kenobi, alright?” Mister Kix said, patting the FX droid. “Last we checked, your scans were fine, but considering this whole situation, we don’t want any unexpected complications popping up only to be missed.”
“What’s natborn mean?” Obi-Wan asked, as the droid started to scan Anakin, beeping out what it was doing every step of the way.
“Short for ‘natural born.’ Not a clone like the rest of us. I’m going to take your scans now, don’t fight me, got it?”
“Clone? Clone of who?”
“Jango Fett.”
“Jango Fett...You’re Mandalorians? ” Obi-Wan asked, sounding relieved. Then, he tensed up again. “What did you do with my lightsaber?”
“Commander Cody probably has it,” Kix said. “Apparently he’s usually the one who finds it when you lose it. If he doesn’t have it, check with Commander Tano, she’s Torrent’s padawan.”
Anakin didn’t know why Obi-Wan was so relaxed about being on a ship full of Mandalorians. They were bounty hunters . Even though Qui-Gon had won Anakin fair and square, that didn’t stop Anakin from worrying that Watto might have put out a reward for his return. And who was to say that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan didn’t have bounties of their own? The Jedi were the kind of people who tended to get into the sort of trouble that landed bounties on heads. And, of course, there were always people who would give a handsome reward for a live Force-sensitive, bounty or not. It really didn’t seem safe to Anakin to be on a ship full of Mandalorians.
Still, Obi-Wan trusted the Mandalorians. He seemed to feel more safe around Mandalorians than regular people, and surely he knew the dangers of being Force-sensitive even better than Anakin did! Maybe that meant that Anakin should trust them too. He supposed he would wait, and then decide for himself.
Fixit finished looking Anakin over and beeped out its results. It called him underweight and short for his age.
“If those are the most pressing problems he has besides the obvious, I’m counting that as a win,” Kix said. “Go find Coric and tell him to get the Commanders and Rex.”
The droid trundled off.
“Where’s Qui-Gon? And Padmé and Jar Jar and the Queen?” Obi-Wan asked.
“Senator Amidala and Representative Binks are on Coruscant, last I heard,” Kix said. “I don’t know who Qui-Gon is or which queen you’re referring to, though.”
“Qui-Gon’s my Master,” Obi-Wan said. “And Padmé’s not a senator, she’s one of the Nubian Queen’s handmaidens." As an afterthought, he mumbled, "...and I think her last name's Naberrie.”
Kix frowned and changed the subject. “I’m going to ask you the same questions I asked Anakin,” Kix said. “Answer them honestly, it’s a medical assessment.”
Anakin watched them go back and forth. The only question that Kix changed for Obi-Wan was that instead of asking who his Jedi Master was, he asked who Obi-Wan’s padawan was. Obi-Wan said he didn’t have one. Then he asked who Obi-Wan’s Commander was, and Obi-Wan didn’t understand the question, but said that Kix probably meant Qui-Gon. Kix didn’t seem pleased with Obi-Wan’s answers either, though Obi-Wan, at least, could tell him who the Chancellor was.
Soon enough, four more people entered the medbay. Three of them looked just like Kix, and the last one was a shorter non-human with three lightsabers on her belt. Another Jedi! Wizard!
Kix left to talk with his brothers, and the Jedi ducked around him to practically run towards him and Obi-Wan. “Skyguy! Master Obi-Wan! You’re awake!”
“Padawan,” Obi-Wan corrected again. “...It’s Padawan Obi-Wan.”
The Jedi stopped just short of jumping to hug Anakin, it seemed. She bowed at the two of them instead. “Coric said you two didn’t seem to know what was going on,” she said.
“Yes, well, nobody here seems very keen on providing any answers,” Obi-Wan said, clearly irritated.
“You don’t recognize me, do you?” The Jedi asked.
“Should I?” Obi-Wan asked.
“I’m Padawan Ahsoka Tano,” she said, as if that cleared everything up.
“Torrent’s padawan, then, according to the medic,” Obi-Wan said. “I’ll admit I don’t know every Jedi in the galaxy, but I’ve never heard of a Master Torrent.”
“Oh, no,” Padawan Tano said, almost giggling. “Torrent’s not my master. I’m the Jedi Commander of Torrent Company.”
“Then who is your Master?”
Padawan Tano took a breath. “Master Anakin Skywalker,” she said.
That didn’t make any sense to Anakin, but he felt in his gut that she was telling the truth.
Obi-Wan scowled. “Very funny,” he said.
“It’s not a joke,” Padawan Tano said seriously.
Obi-Wan’s scowl softened to a concerned frown. “I should have asked this first: Is this a vision?”
Padawan Tano gave him an odd look. “No? And since when do you have visions, Master Obi-Wan?”
“Padawan Obi-Wan.”
“ Padawan Obi-Wan, then, if it makes you feel better,” Padawan Tano said. “How old are you now?”
“Twenty-five,” Obi-Wan said. “And what, I’m just supposed to believe that we’re in the future or something?”
“I mean, I don’t think it’s time travel, otherwise we’d already know about it, wouldn’t we?” Padawan Tano said. “You and Skyguy were on a mission in the middle of a battle to stop some new Seppie weapon. The last comm we got from you was that you thought it was some sort of Sith artifact, and then the line went totally dead! When Rex and I finally caught up to you guys, you were unconscious and, well, like this, and then you didn’t wake up for two days!”
“Did we stop the weapon?” Obi-Wan asked.
“I don’t know! I assume so since we didn’t have overwhelming losses, but maybe whatever turned you into kids was the weapon! After all, if it can turn powerful human Jedi into little kids, imagine what it could do to regular humans, like, oh I don’t know, everyone in the GAR! If you both lost ten years , that could mean—”
“You’re spiraling, Padawan,” Obi-Wan said gently. “Take a few deep breaths and center yourself.”
Padawan Tano did as ordered, and suddenly something in the air seemed to dissipate. Anakin let go of tension and anxiety that he wasn’t aware he’d been feeling, and then after a moment, he thought that maybe he hadn’t been feeling it. Or maybe he had, but it was like an external feeling, like when you touch something really hot and you can feel it’s hot but it’s not you that’s hot. Anakin didn’t quite understand it, himself.
The quadruplet Mandalorians joined them, saluting briefly. Anakin thought it would be difficult to tell them apart if all their armor wasn’t painted differently. He’d never seen quadruplets before. It was considered unfortunate on Tatooine if a mother gave birth to twins, or at least it was in the slaves’ quarters. His mom told him that mothers who carried twins were less likely to survive the birth. He hadn’t known it was possible for moms to carry three, much less four.
“Generals,” said the only one in orange armor. Anakin saw that he had a lightsaber clipped to his belt, and wondered if he was a Jedi too. “It’s good to see you awake.”
“If I’m supposed to recognize you, I don’t,” Obi-Wan said irritably.
“Yeah, Kix mentioned the two of you didn’t know what was going on,” said the one with a skirt over his armor and a weird blue decoration on his shoulder. He was also blond, just like Anakin.
“I’m Marshal Commander Cody,” said the one in orange. “I’m your second-in-command, General Kenobi. This is Captain Rex, Skywalker’s second-in-command, and Sergeant Coric, another Torrent medic.”
“You’ll have to explain this to me like I’m not a Mandalorian,” Obi-Wan said. “But, how, exactly, did you end up with three Jedi in charge? After Galidraan, I’d think most Mandalorians would shoot a Jedi on sight, not ally themselves with us in battle and certainly not let them be any sort of leader in another Mandalorian war.”
“This isn’t a Mandalorian war, Master Obi-Wan—”
“ Padawan —”
“ Padawan Obi-Wan,” Padawan Tano said. “It’s a galaxy-wide civil war. The Jedi lead the Grand Army of the Republic. The Sith lead the droid army of the Separatists.”
Now it was Obi-Wan who had to take deep breaths to center himself. Anakin heard the beeping of Obi-Wan’s machine speed up and then slowly return to normal. The beeping one must monitor heartbeats.
“Okay,” Obi-Wan said. “What do you need me to do?”
“That’s for the Council to decide,” Padawan Tano said. “No offense, but if you don’t remember anything, I’m not sure you’re really in a position to be leading a war.”
Anakin could tell that Obi-Wan was panicking, and it wasn’t just because the heart rate monitor was speeding up again.
Obi-Wan glared at it. “Do I really need to keep this thing on?”
Kix gave a short, almost humorless, laugh. “I suppose not,” he said.
Obi-Wan popped the monitor off of his finger, and turned off the machine as it started shrieking out a “no heartbeat” alarm. Coric came over to Anakin to unclip his own monitor.
“Are they cleared to leave?” Commander Cody asked.
“For the moment,” Kix said.
Obi-Wan slid off the cot immediately. “Are we going to see the Council now?” he asked.
“I would like to recommend that you and Anakin eat a meal before anything else,” Kix said. It sounded like an order, not a recommendation.
Commander Cody nodded. “Mess hall, then Council meeting.”
Obi-Wan gave a short nod, then walked over to Anakin’s cot. “Come on, Anakin,” he said, holding out a hand to help Anakin down. Anakin took it and hopped off the cot.
“Rex, take Anakin and Ahsoka to wait outside,” Kix said. “I need to discuss something with General Kenobi.”
Obi-Wan tensed.
Obi-Wan had been brave and risked getting punished to make Kix be nice to Anakin. It was only fair that Anakin do the same for Obi-Wan.
“I want to stay with Obi-Wan!” Anakin said, clinging defiantly to Obi-Wan’s hand.
“No,” Kix said. “I need to speak with him alone.”
Anakin opened his mouth to argue even though his mind screamed at him to stop, to avoid making Kix mad.
Obi-Wan squeezed his hand. “Anakin, why don’t you wait just outside the doors? They’re transparisteel, you can watch me the whole time and Kix can still speak freely.”
“...Okay,” Anakin said. Obi-Wan squeezed his hand again before letting go. Anakin somehow knew it was a thank you for trying to stick up for him.
“Come on Skyguy,” Padawan Tano said cheerfully. “Mas— Padawan Obi-Wan will be out in a jiffy!”
She held out her hand for Anakin to grab. He risked one more chance at punishment, folding his hands into his sleeves the way he’d seen Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon do on Tatooine. He wanted them to know that he did not approve of being separated from Obi-Wan.
Padawan Tano, at least, seemed to get the message, deflating and dropping her hand. Silently, they left the medbay.