The Adventures of Babysitting with Ahsoka Tano (COMPLETE)

Part 14

"Anakin... Anakin, can you hear me?"

He had to concentrate, but a familiar face came into focus directly in front of him. "Anakin," she was saying, waving a hand in front of his eyes.

"Hey, Snips," he groaned, rubbing his head. "Ow. What was that?"

"Anakin?"

That was Obi-Wan. Anakin turned to look, but as soon as he did, he nearly lost his mind. "Obi-Wan? What... what?"

"Why did you cut your hair? When did you cut your hair?"

"I should be asking you the same thing!"

"Hold on, hold on!" Ahsoka told them, pausing the conversation before it progressed. "I'm really sorry about this, but I need you to listen to me. I don't have a lot of time to explain."

"Wait a minut- Ahsoka?" Anakin asked, finally seeing that Obi-Wan wasn't the only one that looked strange. "I don't understand. What's going on?"

"You and Obi-Wan were hit with an age ray," she explained. Before they could ask, she added, "It's a beam that changes how old you are. Both of you were on a mission together, and you got hit at the same time. The beam turned both of you into nineteen-year-olds. Obi-Wan is now missing his beard and about five centimeters of height, and Anakin lost most of his hair and his eye scar."

"WHAT?"

Some of the clone troopers stifled giggles at Anakin's reaction. He reached a hand up to his face, touching where the scar should have been, and felt nothing. Then he ran a hair over his head and realized he had a buzz cut again. He looked at Obi-Wan, horrified, but his master had his hands over his chin. "How... how is this possible?"

Ahsoka shrugged, sighing. "I have no idea, but I do know how to fix it. We believe the effects can be reversed, so we're flying down to the laboratory right now to find the age ray."

"Did you get hit too?" Anakin asked, looking back at her again? "Why did you get older instead of younger?"

"That's the other thing. We recently figured out that the beam causes you to lose your memory a year at a time. Almost two years have passed that you don't remember. The Clone War has been going on for over four years."

Anakin and Obi-Wan stared at her with gaping jaws. "You.. you're eighteen?"

"Yeah. Crazy, right?" she smiled, trying to empathize with them. "I know it's a lot, but I need you to trust me. Your memory is going to regress until you think you're nineteen years old again. This won't be the last time you forget, but if we hurry we can turn you back before it happens again."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive," she told them despite the fact that it was not guaranteed whatsoever. The hope that the age ray would restore the Jedi's memory was a theory, not a given. Standing up, she held a hand out to Anakin to pull him to his feet.

He tried to process the information running through his head. He was supposed to be two years older? Ahsoka was eighteen? Well, the second part was easy enough to believe. Her face had changed just enough that it was clear she had aged since Anakin had last seen her. Though he was still confused, he did trust his Padawan, so he took her hand and rose to his feet, grabbing a hold of the hand strap on the ceiling of the gunship.

Cody helped Obi-Wan to his feet too. The Jedi shook his head. "Well, that's one way to start the morning."

"Oh, you have no idea," his commander told him. "We've been dealing with this for hours now, you just don't remember any of it."

"Quick question:" Anakin interjected before the subject could change. "What are you wearing?"

"Civilian clothing," Ahsoka explained, showing him. "I was undercover when I got the call that something had happened to you and Obi-Wan. Everything was moving so quickly that I didn't have time to change before we got on board. Long story, I'll explain later."