"Ani…something wonderful has happened…I'm pregnant."

The words bounced around in Anakin's head, not fully registering. He had been in the Senate, talking with Padme. She had given him the most wonderful news of his life.

Pain stabbed up his back. He gasped. He didn't breathe in clean air but the hiss of a respirator. His eyes popped open. Red lenses swam before him, as if he had fallen asleep with some sort of night vision goggles on him. Had he been on a mission and been injured?

An incessant beeping imposed itself upon him. Several alarms were going off. He forced himself to lift his pounding head and look around. An unfamiliar cockpit surrounded him. He wasn't in his beloved starfighter, but somewhere else. The console was crunched down on his legs, which surprisingly didn't hurt as much as he would've thought. And ohmygoodnessohmygoodness it was on fire.

Anakin reached for the Force and ripped the ship open, not bothering with preserving this mysterious ship he had found himself in. The sooner he could get out of it, the better. He didn't want it to explode with him in it. He wrenched the wreckage off his legs and scrambled out of the hole he'd created into a dense jungle. Pain swam through his head, and he collapsed to his hands and knees. He stared at his hands, splayed before him. Both of them were clothed in heavy black gloves. His arms were clad in heavy black armor, not his typical dark Jedi tunics. His head was trapped in some sort of heavy helmet with a respirator forcing him to breathe in and out. What was happening to him? What had happened?

Never mind that. He still wasn't far enough away from the ship. He crawled away among the clinging underbrush until the ship was hidden by the trees. He collapsed and leaned against a tree, gasping for breath, despite the harsh rasp of the respirator. His head pounded, his back stabbed, his hands trembled—his hands.

He was used to the reduced feeling in his right, robotic hand. He wasn't used to feeling it in his left hand as well. He reached over and pulled off his left glove.

His left hand was robotic.

His heart beat crazy fast. Even with the respirator, he struggled to get a steadying breath. He didn't remember losing his left arm. He had had a left hand last he remembered, standing in the Senate with Padme. What was going on? What am I missing?

Amnesia. It had to be. He was in an accident—duh, I was in a ship crash—and hurt his head. Lost his memory.

An explosion rocked through the jungle. Fire burst through the trees Anakin was staring at, but didn't quite reach him. He put his head down and drifted for a while. Clambering out of the ruins of the ship had exhausted him. Finally, he gathered his strength and sat up. Pain stabbed through his back, but he funneled the pain through the Force. His legs ached, but considering they had been under a crushed control panel, honestly not too bad. Or perhaps he had just been trapped and not crushed.

Still, better to make sure they were fine. It's what Obi-Wan would do. His legs were clad in more of that heavy black armor and some black boots. At last, something familiar about this odd garb. He pulled off the boots.

Oh, stang.

So apparently he had been in an accident where he had lost all of his limbs. Fantastic. He pulled his boots and his glove back on.

He continued his examination of himself. There was a-was that a control panel in the middle of his chest?

Probably for this stupid helmet controlling his breathing. What had happened to him to require this?

I hope this is just my battle gear and I usually wear something much more comfortable. He reached for the helmet to take it off and breathe the fresh air on his own.

NO! The Force practically screamed at him. His breath hitched and he let his hands drop. He'd never in his life been in so much danger the Force vocalized to scream at him before, and for Anakin "Reckless" Skywalker, that was saying a lot. Better to just let the Force have its way.

Lightsaber. Where was his lightsaber—oh, crap. A lightsaber hung on his belt, but it didn't remotely resemble his. He pulled it off and activated it, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his heart. The blade was red.

Anakin deactivated the lightsaber and clipped it back to his belt, closing his eyes in despair. He had lost his lightsaber. Again. He must have won a battle with a Sith Lord (maybe Dooku's master?) and put their lightsaber on his belt, since he must have lost his during the duel. At least, he hoped that was how he lost it, and not in some other, more embarrassing way. "Obi-Wan is going to kill me."

Was…was that his voice? What in the galaxy? Why in heavens name was he wearing a vocalizer that made his voice a deep bass? Was he trying to sound intimidating? Wouldn't Master Yoda call that a path to the Dark Side?

Ugh. Best to figure out where he was and how to get home and push off dealing with the amnesia till later. He stood up, stumbling against the tree as pain stabbed through him again. He regained his strength, pushing the pain away in the Force, and examined the jungle.

Even through the red film, he knew almost immediately where he was. Yavin 4. He had defeated Asajj Ventress here. If only he'd made sure she was dead…

Keep your mind on the present, Anakin. Obi-Wan's insistent voice butted in. Great, he'd been around him so long, he was thinking like Obi-Wan now. Nevertheless, he recognized this place, and, if he wasn't mistaken, and he rarely was, he was very near a temple he could take refuge in to rest until he sorted his head out a little more.

Thankfully, the Messassi Temple wasn't very far, because by the time Anakin reached it, his legs were trembling, his back was throbbing, and he could barely stand up. Unfortunately, as soon as he left the tree line, he realized somebody had already taken over the temple. A bunch of unfamiliar ships filled the space outside the abandoned hangar. Was it the Separatists? The Republic? Smugglers?

Probably smugglers. Although it looked like the small fighter ships contained guns…

He spotted people walking around the base, a lot of people, and very few droids. That meant it couldn't be the Separatists. Either the Republic or a group of smugglers, then. Given that he was about to collapse again, it wouldn't hurt to go check them out. Maybe he could even get a ride off planet.

He strode forward, drawing on the Force to steady the wobble in his step. Kix would kill him for brushing off his injuries like this, but it wasn't like he had the luxury of stopping to seek help. Never mind, he was seeking help right now. Wouldn't Obi-Wan and Padme be proud of him?

Not that he was actually planning on telling these people he was injured until he was absolutely certain he could trust them.

Obi-Wan! How could he be so stupid? He reached out across the Force Bond he had refused to sever for his former master.

The bond was broken.

Obi-Wan was gone.

Anakin had to shuttle away his anguish to deal with later, because he had almost reached the first row of ships, and the people there were finally starting to notice him. Unobservant morons. Hopefully this wasn't the Republic. They didn't need people this shoddy working for them.

The people, mostly pilots and mechanics, he would guess, froze at the sight of him. They stood stock still for about a second, then turned around and started to bolt.

"Wait!" Anakin called. "Stop! Come back. I need help!" Dizziness overtook his pounding head and he collapsed to the ground, bracing himself against the hangar duracrete beneath him.

A few turned to look at him like he was crazy. What, never considered the idea that a Jedi might need help before?

He tried to get up, but his spinning head catapulted him flat out on the ground. His vision blurred before him. He might have to ignore the Force and take his helmet off anyway, because he was about to be sick.

An astromech's beeping cut through his haze. A familiar astromech's beeping. "R2?"

He put his head down, hoping the spinning would steady.

A painful shock ran through his body. Anakin jolted up. Artoo loomed before him, arm extended. "Hey!" He forced himself to sit up. Thankfully, the dizziness had subsided some. "What was that for?"

Artoo gave a rude blat, which, when used against Anakin, was usually code for "You've done something incredibly stupid and now we're in trouble."

"All right, I'm sorry. I'll be more careful next time."

[Yeah, right.] But Artoo withdrew his arm.

Anakin placed his hands on either side of Artoo's dome. "Boy, am I glad to see you."

"Artoo?" A hesitant, bewildered voice broke in.

Anakin glanced up. A young man stood behind Artoo, very powerful in the Force, by appearances, though why Anakin hadn't noticed him before now he could only attribute to the fact that he felt like death warmed over, and on the young man's belt—

"Hey, that's my lightsaber!" Anakin climbed to his feet, using Artoo to push himself up. Pain pounded in his head, but the dizziness was mostly subsided. The young man appeared to be very light in the Force, but Anakin readied himself to grab the Sith lightsaber just in case. Hopefully the young man would just give Anakin his lightsaber back and Anakin would never have to explain to Obi-Wan that he had briefly lost it.

The young man in question activated said lightsaber instead of handing it over. "It belonged to my father. Do you remember him?"

"Uh…" His father? Anakin knew that was his lightsaber, so why would the young man think it belonged to his father? Why would he want to know if he remembered him?

A cold pit curled in his stomach. How much time had he lost?

Did the young man somehow know about his amnesia?

Could he be…?

Nah, that was impossible.

"Look, I don't know who you are or how you found it, or my droid, but you need to hand it back." Anakin extended his hand in hopes that the young man would just hand the lightsaber over and be done with it.

The young man just looked more bewildered than ever. "Your droid?"

"Yes, my droid," Anakin snapped. "I'm Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, General of the 501st Legion, and that is my lightsaber, and this is my droid. I crashed on this moon and my ship blew up, and I need to get back to Coruscant to speak with Padm—Obi-Wan Kenobi." And speak with Vokara Che. Surely Obi-Wan was just deep undercover again. Anakin wouldn't be able to forget his death.

The young man gaped for about half a minute, and when he did finally speak, his response was nonsensical. "No…that's not true. That's impossible!"

"Uh…no, it's not. Look, it's really important that I get back to Coruscant as fast as possible. Do you know where I can get safe passage there?" Hopefully with his stuff.

"You can't be Anakin Skywalker!" the young man protested.

"Why not?" Anakin protested.

"You…that's not possible."

Artoo finally rolled away from between them and swiveled his dome between the two. His beep almost seemed like a sigh.

Frustrated with this moronic man, Anakin turned to his trusty droid. "Artoo, what am I missing?"

[About twenty years of your memory, apparently.] Artoo replied.

"Twenty years?" Anakin repeated dumbly. That was impossible.

[Maybe more like nineteen and a half. Coruscant hasn't been called Coruscant for about nineteen and a half years.]

Hasn't been called Coruscant? What in the galaxy else would they call it? "So why can't I be Anakin Skywalker?"

The young man's mouth opened and closed a few times before he said, "Ben said you betrayed and murdered my father."

And now they were back to his father. "What does your father have to do with anything?" The world started churning again. Anakin stumbled and reached out for Artoo.

"My name is Luke Skywalker. Anakin Skywalker was my father."

Anakin's world dropped out from under him. As did his legs. He should really get this head wound checked out.

"Ani…something wonderful has happened…I'm pregnant."

He choked out, "It's a boy?" before passing out completely.