Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Oh great. Look at that. We're alone," Anakin said, crossing his arms as the shuttle juddered out of hyperspace to reveal nothing but the dark, empty void of space in front of them. They were supposed to meet Rex at these coordinates to investigate a mysterious Jedi distress signal, but clearly the cruiser was not here.

"Patience, Anakin," Obi-Wan commented. Anakin rolled his eyes. Obi-Wan—always telling him to 'relax' and 'be patient' and to 'take a breath'. "Rex is probably just running a little late. There's no need to fret just yet." 

Anakin let out a breath. Obi-Wan was right. Maybe there was a slight hold up at the docking port and Rex was just running a few minutes late. They could wait a few minutes. Though that wasn't going to stop him from trying to reach his captain. 

"You're right," he sighed, before reaching out and swiftly tapping in the code on the comm channel. The light blinked once, twice; active. 

"Rex. Rex, do you read me?" he spoke clearly. The holo-emitter flickered into life, revealing the blue-tinted image of his captain standing before him on the other end of the line. "We're at the rendezvous point awaiting your arrival. Where are you?" 

"Sir, we are at the rendezvous point, and there's no sign of you on our scanners." 

"Oh, come on. That's impossible," he said. He turned to Obi-Wan, who was sitting in the co-pilot seat to his right. "Something's wrong. We're at the exact coordinates where the distress signal originated, but there's nothing here. Rex is at the exact same coordinates, and he's not here." 

"This is getting interesting," Obi-Wan replied. Anakin agreed, this was getting weird. How could they be in the exact same place, but also not. This wasn't making any sense…

"—unable to find you." Rex's transmission came out garbled. The image flickered in and out. "Where are you, sir?" 

"Something's blocking the signal," Ahsoka said from behind him. Then, a moment later, the lights flickered and the ship's electronics powered down, descending the cockpit into darkness. 

"Not good," Obi-Wan said as he tapped various buttons on the control panel. Anakin tried the panel in front of him, but it was no use. Nothing was working. 

"Everything's dead," Ahsoka added. "Even the life support." 

"Hmm, this is really strange," he said. But then, just a moment after Anakin said that, suddenly all the electronics powered back up, the lights flickering back to normal. 

"There. See?" Obi-Wan said with a small grin. "Nothing to be concerned about after all." 

Anakin exchanged a glance with Ahsoka. Nothing to worry about. But then, after a beat, the togruta extended her hand, pointing towards the viewport as her eyes widened. 

"Then what's that?" she said, nervously. 

Anakin followed Ahsoka's hand to look out of the viewport, only to find that there was some sort of large, dark, pyramid-like structure floating a little ways in front of them. Anakin blinked. That definitely wasn't there a moment ago. How did it…

All of a sudden the shuttle jolted, sending the ship's system into chaos. The air filled with frantic beeps loud enough to give Anakin a headache as the shuttle began moving towards the strange structure somehow. It was as if they were caught in a tractor beam. 

"It's pulling us towards it." 

Anakin tried to steer the ship, flicking through all the controls, but it was no use. They were being pulled closer and closer to the structure with no way to stop it or break free. 

Suddenly, the structure began to open up somehow, emitting a bright white light as their ship continued to race towards it. 

"Everyone, strap yourselves in," Obi-Wan said, just before they reached the structure, "Looks as though we're going for a ride…" 

Blinding white light began to encase the whole shuttle. Anakin winced, holding an arm in front of his face, squinting as the light got brighter and brighter and brighter, until—

Everything went dark. 

Chapter Text

Anakin slowly blinked open his eyes, letting out a groan as he leaned back against his seat, stretching his arms.

"Obi-Wan…?" he called out tiredly, blinking his eyes to try to wake himself up. 

Not receiving a reply from the older Jedi, Anakin shook his head to rid of his lingering grogginess before turning to glance at the co-pilot seat beside him, only to find that it was empty. 

That's odd, he thought. Glancing behind him, he noticed that his Padawan was missing too. 

Though, he didn't let concern take over just yet, vaguely wondering if Obi-Wan and Ahsoka had just simply woken up before him—if they had even passed out like he had—and were maybe just in the back of the shuttle somewhere. 

Standing up, padding over to glance through the open door of the cockpit, Anakin rubbed his forehead, calling out, "Obi-Wan? Ahsoka?" 

But, once again, he received no reply, seeing no sign of movement in the back of the small shuttle. 

And, now that the remaining grogginess had left him, reaching into the force, Anakin quickly grew to realise that he couldn't actually sense either of his fellow Jedi's presences nearby—or, rather, he realised with a start that he couldn't actually sense them in the force at all, as if the pair of them had somehow vanished from existence. 

Though…wait. That wasn't quite true. For a brief moment, Anakin felt as if he could sense at least one of them, sensing a familiar flicker of quiet determination which could only be coming from his former Master. Though, Obi-Wan, as it seemed, was somewhere else, feeling far away, somewhere more distant and definitely not on the shuttle—which, as Anakin turned back to look through the viewport, he realised was currently sitting in a hangar of some kind. 

It looked Republic, though something wasn't right about it, the design appearing slightly off from the normal Republic standard. Anakin's mind to raced, working to figure out where exactly he was until he quickly came to the admittedly wild conclusion that maybe this was actually a Republic hangar, but it had been modified from a stolen Republic vessel by the Separatists, who were maybe using it as a trap to lure in any Republic forces to then potentially hold any highly-ranked persons they caught in their net for ransom—explaining why the design looked slightly off, plus Obi-Wan and Ahsoka's absence, who had both likely been taken into custody somewhere on this vessel. 

Though, he thought, pausing himself from his thoughts… why had he been left in here if that was the case? 

That would be an odd move, even for the Separatists. 

Deciding not to panic for the moment, Anakin reached for the comms, holding the button to send out a signal on Republic channels, even though it was likely going to be blocked if this was indeed a Separatist controlled vessel—but that wasn't going to stop him from at least trying. 

"This is General Skywalker, calling on all Republic frequencies," he said. "I repeat, this is General Skywalker, calling on all Republic frequencies. Can anyone read me? I believe my shuttle has been sieged by Separatists, calling for emergency backup. I repeat—"

Sskkrrrrr… 

The crackling sound of comm waves being dampened cut him off, and Anakin realised that his signal was being blocked. 

Likely the Separatists, then, he figured, releasing a resigned breath.

Sitting back, he wracked his brain trying to figure out what exactly to do next, when he soon noticed what looked like a unit of ARC troopers lining up outside the shuttle.

Though, as he studied them, Anakin realised that, no—maybe they weren’t ARC troopers after all. Their armour design looked slightly altered, which was what made him initially suspect that they were ARC troopers at first glance, but their getup was all white in colour more like a rookie’s, with no identifiable markings, and Anakin was beginning to wonder if, instead of the Separatists having managed to take control of the troops of this vessel, they had somehow begun drafting real people into their army—when a harsh nock at the back of the shuttle tore him away from his thoughts, the abrupt noise accompanied by the sound of muffled, commanding voices shouting outside.

Anakin turned round in the direction of the hustle, taking to his feet, when suddenly a small explosion rang out from the back of the ship a few beats later, causing Anakin to duck and use his chair for cover.

Cautiously peeking up several moments later, lowering his hands from his ears, he saw that the landing ramp had been blown open and a small sextet of these troopers were marching on board, blasters raised in his direction as Anakin slowly stood up with his hands raised, swallowing back a gulp.

"Who are you?" one of the troopers asked sharply, blaster still pointed in his direction. His voice was slightly muffled, yet somehow paradoxically and mechanically clear through the helmet’s vocoder. "How did you get in here?" 

"Uh…" 

"Who are you?" 

"I'm…Anakin Skywalker," he answered obediently, keeping his hands raised. "I…I don't know how I got in here. I swear. Can somebody please tell me what is going on here?—And why you blew a hole in my ship?" 

"We ask the questions, scum!" the trooper replied. "Don't make us ask you again—Who are you? What are you doing in here, rebel?!" 

Rebel? Anakin thought to himself. What did that even mean— 

"We asked you a question!" 

"I-I swear to you," Anakin swallowed, "I don't know how to explain this, but I don't know how I got here." 

"Liar," the trooper retorted. "We know what you're up to, Rebel. Are you here to deliver the plans to the princess?" 

Plans? Princess? What in the world—

"Plans?" Anakin stuttered. "What Plans? Please, I don't know what you're talking ab—"

"Shut it, Scum!" the trooper yelled, cutting him off. "We've got you. There's no need to resist. We're taking you in."

"I'm not lying," Anakin retorted anyway, keeping his hands raised placatingly. "Really. I don't know anything about these 'plans', but what I do want to know is where did you take my friends?—What did you do with Obi-Wan and Ahsoka?"

"Obi-Wan?" the trooper questioned, "I don't know of no 'Obi-Wan'. Or a 'Soka'. Quit stalling, Rebel. You've got no friends here. Except for the Princess. But, don't worry, you'll be reunited with her highness soon enough…"

The troopers shared a menacing chuckle at that. Releasing an exasperated breath, Anakin remained where he stood, briefly glancing up at the ceiling in disbelief that this was even real, when the trooper at the front spoke again. 

"On your knees, Rebel. You've got no escape from the Empire." 

Empire? Anakin questioned in his head. Well, this was getting saner by the minute. 

Maybe he had guessed this all wrong, he began to realise dumbly. Maybe this wasn't a Separatist controlled vessel after all, instead some random new faction claiming themselves as this so-called 'Empire'—whom he had just so happened to conveniently run into when the shuttle was being pulled into that weird diamond-like structure Anakin remembered seeing before he had blacked out. 

Or, he wondered, maybe he was dreaming. Maybe that was it. He had just dreamed this whole thing up, and he was actually still in the middle of space waiting at the rendezvous point for Rex. That could be the case. A reasonable explanation as to why everything here seemed oddly familiar yet not quite right. Normal, yet out of place. 

"I said, on your knees, Rebel scum!"

However, as Anakin attempted to squeeze his eyes shut and pinch his arm to will himself awake, only to find that he was still standing right there staring down the end of a half dozen blaster barrels, he quickly reassessed that conclusion, realising with a sinking feeling deep in his gut that he actually was in fact awake and that this was real life and not some odd dream, slowly dropping to his knees in obedience as his mind raced to formulate a plan for how exactly to get out of this current predicament.

Subtly trying to reach for his lightsaber at his belt, Anakin was met with a sudden shock to find nothing but clear air in his weapon's usual resting place.

Huh? 

Quickly glancing down and scanning the floor in case it had dropped during whatever had occurred while he was unconscious, hearing the familiar sharp click of blaster triggers at the ready, Anakin's heartbeat rapidly increased, feeling the muscle anxiously pounding beneath his ribcage as he sinkingly realised that his lightsaber was apparently no where to be found.

Cautiously glancing up again to face the troopers aiming at him, Anakin suddenly felt a whole lot more outnumbered in this situation. Whatever this situation was.

"Stay down, Rebel. Or we will fire." 

"I swear," Anakin tried again, holding his hands up again placatingly, "I don't know anything about these 'plans'. Or Rebels. I—" 

But, seeming to take his slight movement as a threat, Anakin heard the click of a trigger, and there was only a brief moment as he stared at the group of troopers standing in the cockpit doorway before his body was struck by a disorienting wave of light, and everything went dark.