The Adventures of Babysitting with Ahsoka Tano (COMPLETE)

Part 7

"Did you cut your hair?"

"Did you SHAVE???"

"What?" Obi-Wan's hand went to his chin, his eyes going wide when he realized his beard was gone. He tried to feel around for it, but it really wasn't there. There was nothing until he got to his hairline, and even there, he wasn't supposed to have a buzz cut. 

Anakin looked around him, making sure he was really where he thought he was. "I hit my head, right? Concussion? Wait a minute," he remembered, looking back to Obi-Wan. "Did you ask if I cut my hair?"

He reached a hand up behind his head, finding that he had also lost the majority of his wavey locks. Anakin closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose, pressing his lips together. He didn't know why or how his hair was gone, but he didn't appreciate it.

"Why is the hangar so empty?" Obi-Wan wondered, reaching to the stack of clothes the two of them must have left on the ground. He grabbed a comlink from his pile and examined the time, then sighed when he got an answer to his question. "Of course, we're in the middle of the night shift. I doubt anyone was here that would have seen what happened."

"So there's no one to explain what's going on," he grumbled, Force-floating his canteen to his hand. Anakin didn't remember it, but he and Obi-Wan must have been sparring pretty hard. He was still sweating bullets, and his mouth was dry. He chugged the rest of his water before refocusing on the situation at hand. 

Obi-Wan gathered the pieces of his robes and started putting them back on. "Well, as long as everyone is asleep, I'm going to clean up before we start asking questions."

"Yeah, sure," Anakin agreed, kneeling and grabbing his own things. He hesitated before asking, "Do you remember coming here?"

"'Here' as in...?"

"On the cruiser."

He opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out. Obi-Wan considered this for a moment longer, but he still couldn't come up with an answer. "I could have sworn I was in the Temple a few minutes ago, but..."

Anakin took that as a 'no.' "Great. So we don't know how we got here, and we don't know what's going on."

"Well, complaining isn't going to fix it, Anakin," Obi-Wan told him, adjusting his stoles and trying to make them fit as they normally did, which they did not. Giving up, he grabbed his belt and secured it into place. "For all we know, we just got dehydrated and need to rest. Let's shower before we make any rash decisions."

Right, because a shower is going to fix everything, he groaned, though the idea did sound nice at the moment. Anakin didn't bother to redress fully but put his undershirt on and called it good. Everything else he gathered in his arms until he noticed his glove on the ground. 

He glanced back at Obi-Wan without him noticing. It certainly looked like something time-related had happened here. He looked like a teenager, and if his hair suggested anything, so did Anakin. Had they changed, or had the world around them changed? There was no way to tell, except...

Reaching for the glove, he slid his robotic arm in and felt for his only clue. Please don't be there, please don't be there, please don't be there-

It was there. The tiny sliver of hope Anakin had was gone. If he was still hiding Ahsoka's Padawan chain in his glove, then the world around them hadn't changed that much. 

"Anakin."

"I'm coming," he said, fastening the straps on his glove and standing up again. Tucking the rest of his things under his arms, he caught up to his master and settled in pace with him.