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When Anakin came to, he examined himself and his surroundings. He was strapped to a chair; not unusual. There were cuffs that bound his wrists and ankles to said chair, probably also Force suppressive because of its absence in his mind. Again, not unusual. No broken or sprained ribs or bones; that’s good. Slowly, Anakin opened his eyes and looked around, white sterile walls and bright lights glaring back at him. There was a lab counter next to the chair he was strapped in that was devoid of anything and completely spotless. Cabinets and drawers lined the walls, and there were several data screens and monitors that were turned off. Okay, so he was in a laboratory of some sort. Probably funded by Separatists. Not good.
Then, the door slid open and a tall lady with red-orange hair tied back in a messy bun walked in. She smiled at Anakin, but it seemed fake.
“Skywalker,” she greeted, “you’re finally awake.”
“Considering you knocked me pretty hard, it would take a while to come back,” Anakin replies dryly.
The woman tsks, “I’m sure you don’t know me, but not to worry, dear. The whole galaxy will know my name soon enough when I cause the downfall of the Republic.”
Definitely a Separatist, Anakin thinks. “And how will you do that?” He asks out loud.
She bares her teeth, “I’m so glad you asked.” She turns and opens one of the cabinets, taking out a syringe filled with a dark blue liquid. “This,” she says, “is a toxin that took me five years to create and perfect.”
Anakin huffs, “You can’t stop me with a little poison. I’ve had much worse.”
The woman gives him that fake smile again, something feral glinting in her eyes. “Oh, but Skywalker,” she almost purrs, “this isn’t going to kill you, no. It’s simply going to…ah, immobilize you. Let’s see how the Republic will win the war when they lose their best General,” the scientist grinned with a crazed expression. She injected the syringe into the side of Anakin’s neck, and he winced at the pinching feeling. “Actually,” he says, “Obi-Wan technically is the best General. He’s the one with the brains. I just have the higher success rates.” Immediately after he’s said that, Anakin curses at himself. Why, why, why did he just have to give this information to the lady? Now, Obi-Wan is going to be targeted because of him.
Anakin counts to ten in his head, and nothing happens. He smirks at the ginger woman in front of him. “Lady, are you sure this concoction of yours is going to work? ‘Cause I don’t feel anyth—“
Suddenly, there was a tingling sensation on the tips of his toes and fingertips, which quickly spread throughout his body and he gasped at the feeling of a trillion little needles poking at his skin. Now, it was the woman’s turn to smirk at him. “Not so tall and mighty now, Jedi.” She leans in and whispers in his ear, “By the way, my name is Doctor Veronica Johanssen, and the galaxy will learn to fear my name when you disappear by my hand.”
Then, the room suddenly becomes bigger, or was this Doctor Johanssen the person that was getting bigger? Or, was Anakin the one actually becoming smaller? He opened his mouth to speak, but to his horror, the only thing that came out was a small “Meow.” The restraints were gone, and he was no longer strapped to the chair. Instead, four feet touching the cool, solid ground. Wait. Four feet? Anakin looks down at himself. There was thick black fur all over his arms/front legs. What.
The Doctor giggled, “Oh, I must say, you’re the cutest one yet out of all my experiments! You see, some of the earliest versions of this toxin created some of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen.” She goes on and on, yapping about her experiments while Anakin examines himself with muted horror. He was an animal. With a tail. The crazy scientist had done this to him! Anakin walks around, his paws hitting the ground with soft pat pat pats.
“I’ll leave you to get settled here, then.” The woman shoots one last fake smile at him before she leaves, the door silently sliding shut behind her and Anakin is left alone. He hopes the 501st comes to rescue him soon.
˖➴☆➴˖°
Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and the 501st storm the laboratory the next day. “Let’s hope Anakin hasn’t gotten himself into too much trouble while we were gone,” Obi-Wan calls to Ahsoka. In truth, he was worried. Getting captured by Separatist scientists wasn’t very good, especially since Anakin is a well known and decorated General of the Republic. He feared the scientist had done something to immobilize Anakin, and there was a weird feeling in his gut.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Ahsoka tells him as they walk down the white hallway. The rest of Anakin’s men had left to secure the rest of the building, and Rex had commed him earlier to say that someone—most likely a scientist—had left the system hours ago, and the building was empty save for some droids.
“Where do you think Anakin is? I don’t sense him anywhere,” Ahsoka says, gaze darting around each door they pass. Obi-Wan had been thinking the same thing. Each door they opened had an empty room with no sign of anyone being in there the day before. Finally, they opened one of the last few remaining doors in the end of the corridor, and there was a chair in the middle that had opened Force restraint cuffs. Great. Anakin had already escaped.
“He was definitely in here,” Ahsoka says, walking around and examining everything.
“So was the scientist,” Obi-Wan notes, sensing a lingering presence of an unfamiliar person.
They hear a small “Meow”, and Obi-Wan spots a huddled ball of fur in the corner of the room.
“Awww, it’s a loth cat!” Ahsoka squeals, darting to the corner and trying to scoop it up in her arms. The little furball darts away from her, hissing. Obi-Wan slowly approaches the loth cat—him, he decided. The loth cat was a male—and held out his arms. Tentatively, the cat walked into his arms, and when Obi-Wan petted him—Force, he was so soft—, he purred, gazing up at Obi-Wan with bright blue eyes that strangely reminded him of Anakin.
When he looked up, Ahsoka was looking at him with a gaping mouth. “How did you do that?” She asks, astonished.
Obi-Wan merely smiles, “You have to be gentle with them, Ahsoka.” Then, he redirects his attention back to the ball of fur in his arms.
˖➴☆➴˖°
“Well, you’re a long way from Lothal, aren’t you, little one?” Obi-Wan cooed. Anakin tried to give him his best glare and huffed. Couldn’t Obi-Wan tell he was holding his former Padawan in his arms? Anakin tried to use their Force bond or augment his Force presence so the other could feel him, but it was as if the Force was slipping away from his fingers every time he tried to grasp it. Yes, he could still feel the Force, but he could no longer control it. He tried to say “I’m Anakin!”, but the only thing that came out was a “Meow”.
“It’s so cute!” Ahsoka gushes, and reaches out a hand to pet him. Instinctively, Anakin hisses, and Ahsoka’s hand darts back to her side, startled. “It doesn’t like me,” she grumbles.
“He,” Obi-Wan corrects, “I’m quite sure this loth cat is a male.” Anakin purrs in agreement. Obi-Wan petting him felt so good, he doesn’t want it to ever stop.
“Check the rest of the cabinets,” Obi-Wan instructs his Padawan, and Ahsoka nods, unlocking everything with a wave of her hand and Anakin feels a spark of pride in his chest.
“Found his lightsaber,” Ahsoka calls, holding out a familiar silver hilt. Obi-Wan takes it and clips it to his belt. “Let’s go,” he says, “I’m sure Anakin will find his way back to us.”
Anakin meows again. I’m right here, he tries to say, but he was a stupid loth cat now, not a person, so he settled himself in his Master’s arms. It was nice and warm there.
˖➴☆➴˖°
Ahsoka glares enviously at the loth cat in Obi-Wan’s arms. She wanted to run her hand through his soft fur so badly, but the stupid cat didn’t want her touching him. When they regrouped with the men on the Resolute, Jesse and Fives had also tried to pet the cat, and he’d reluctantly let them, but only once.
After briefing the Council of their mission, Ahsoka returns to her and Anakin’s quarters. She tiptoes around the droid parts strewn across the floor and collapses on the couch, sighing. “Master, come back soon,” she murmurs. There was an answering “Meow,” at the door, and Ahsoka glanced up to see the loth cat—Poofball, as Fives had named him—at the entrance. Immediately, she perks up, “Poofball?”
Poofball lets out another soft meow, and walks towards Ahsoka, jumping onto the couch and sitting down in front of her. “Can I pet you?” She asks tentatively, and holds out her hand face down in front of Poofball. To her surprise, Poofball leans forward and butts his hand against her palm, his soft fur sending tingling sensations down her arms. Ahsoka gasps in surprise, “You are so soft!” Poofball closes the distance between them and settles down in her lap as Ahsoka continues to stroke his fur.
There was something weirdly familiar about the cat though, his presence in the Force kind of reminded her of Anakin. She has no idea where he is now, but knowing him, he’ll steal any kind of ship he finds and find his way back to the Resolute soon enough. As if sensing her thoughts, Poofball gets up and walks over to a pile of droid parts and tools, picking one up and looking at her expectantly, as if she was supposed to know what the loth cat was saying.
“Put that down,” she says sternly. “Those are Anakin’s tools.” Poofball rolls his bright blue eyes and huffs out a “Meow”. Ahsoka didn’t even know loth cats could do that and she stares at him, dumbfounded. Poofball drops the tool and walks to the door, turning back to see if she would follow. Ahsoka sighs, I guess I’m following a loth cat around now.
To her surprise, Poofball somehow knew his way around the ship, even though Ahsoka was fairly certain they’d never had a loth cat on the Resolute before. Ahsoka soon finds herself on the command bridge, though she has no idea why Poofball had decided to bring her here. She spots Obi-Wan and Rex talking next to a holomap, Poofball jumping onto the table and effectively ending their conversation.
“Hello, Master Kenobi,” Ahsoka says cheerfully, “hey Rex.”
Obi-Wan nods, “Ahsoka. What brings you here?”
Ahsoka points at the furball that was currently having what looked like a very satisfying stretch on their table. “He took me here.”
“A loth cat guided you to the venator’s command bridge?” Rex asks incredulously.
“Yep,” Ahsoka says, popping the P. “Basically told me to follow him from my quarters and now we’re here.”
Obi-Wan strokes his beard. “Most interesting,” he muses. He looks to Rex, “Has any of your men given Poofball a tour?”
“No, sir.” Rex pauses, then adds, “Not to my knowledge, sir.”
Which basically means Fives or Jesse might’ve done it, but Ahsoka didn’t think so. And from the look on the Jedi Master’s face, he didn’t think so either. “You know what’s weird?” He asks, breaking the silence. “I keep having this weird feeling that Anakin’s nearby, but he’s not.”
“Meow.” All three of them turn to look at the loth cat on the holotable. “Me too,” Ahsoka agrees slowly, an idea forming in her head.
“You don’t think,” she started.
“That Anakin is the loth cat?” Obi-Wan finishes. “It’s possible.”
Another “Meow.” This time, Poofball jumps down from the holotable and circles Obi-WAN’s legs. The General looks down at it. “Are you Anakin?”
A possibly(?) affirmative “meow”, and Poofball/Anakin butts his head on Obi-Wan’s legs. The latter sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, “What have you gotten yourself into this time, Anakin?”