Okay. I suppose this is a slightly AU fic… maybe. It's honestly something I just sort of… dreamed up. Literally, actually. XD But, all three of my 'story-screeners' have insisted that it is totally awesome and that I have to post it, despite my arguments that it's rather not my best work. But, hey, what do I know, and if nothing else it is proving very fun to write – so here you go. Like the summary suggests, it is Clone Wars Era, and will be Anakin/Ahsoka (side note to : add Ahsoka to the character list! She's cannon now!). The rest I suppose you'll have to find out for yourself! So… read, enjoy, and please review, because since I'm still not sure if this is any good, reviews WILL effect if I continue posting it or not.

Prologue

Panic. Panic and pain. Metal and pressure and blood and darkness and patches of light. And pain. And… someone was missing. No… no, he couldn't be gone. He had to be here. He'd said he wouldn't leave her. Master… she had no voice. And even if she had, who could hear it? She was buried in metal. There was no space, no room… She had to get out.

She pushed and kicked and fought, and she was stuck and something was digging into her side and it flaming hurt but none of that mattered, because she had to find him, and she couldn't find him stuck in here. She could sense an opening to her left; a hole, an escape. She grabbed hold of a piece of bent hull above and beside her and pulled, and she swore she felt something tear, and then she was loose and the metal she held was shifting and sliding and now she was falling, tumbling down the side of the pod and landing in a painful, tangled heap on the hard dirt and crisp yellowed grass. She looked down at herself. She was covered in blood. Her own blood. A wave of nausea washed over her and her head swam, and some distant, hazy part of her brain thought, Oh, that can't be good. And for a while, darkness flooded her mind, and she didn't think anything else.

The moments of nothingness seemed to end all too soon. What had awoken her? Sounds… voices? It didn't matter. She forced herself to take deep breaths. Everything hurt. How long had she been out? She had to find him. Where was he? Had… had he come with her? She was hurt… was he hurt? Where… couldn't she… she should be able to… she reached out, trying to sense him, trying to call to him, but there was nothing. She couldn't focus. She couldn't concentrate… and there was nothing. No. Focus!

There were voices. Whose voices? Not metallic. Humanoid. But she didn't hear him. They weren't droids, and they weren't him… so the voices weren't important. She fought with her unwilling body; she had to get up. Frag the pain, she had to get up. The blood… was that all her blood? It didn't matter. But she was shaking, and her arms wouldn't hold her up, and her legs wouldn't even move, and she fell back into the prickly yellow grass. And the voices were getting louder, closer.

"I don't know, I've never seen anything like… oh, my stars. Manny… Manny! Get over here!" Shut up, she pleaded silently, I have to focus! Only through focus, only through concentration… she would find him, she had to, she had to reach him, he was somewhere… but all she was finding was emptiness. "Oh my stars… I don't believe this…" There had to be more than just emptiness. "Manny… is it…" "I don't know…" Why wouldn't they be quiet for just a frakking minute and let her focus? "Don't touch it, Kei!" But there was a light pressure on her shoulder anyway; she was being rolled onto her side. "By the Holy Stars…" She couldn't find him. But she could always find him… unless… "Kei, get back, it could hurt you!" He was… he was gone. No. No! And such a fierce pain shot through her chest she could swear someone had grabbed hold of her heart and was twisting it, crushing it. It was worse than all the other pain; an agony she couldn't just hold in. Her cry would join the voices. "No!"

The touch disappeared from her shoulder; a male voice swore, a female cried out. "Dear Light, it's still alive!" and the touch came back. "Oh, dear, you poor thing…"

"Kei, get away from it, you don't know what it is!"

"No, no, Master… no, where are you…" Was she whispering? Was she even talking out loud? There was wetness on her face… tears? Or just more blood? She had to find him, had to get up… but she couldn't.

"Hush now, dear, it's alright… hold still…"

But it was anything but alright. "No, I have… h-have to… f-find my Master…" but her voice was so small she didn't know if it could be heard, and she felt so lost, and her heart was still twisting, and everything was slowly fading. But the voices still continued.

"Kei, I said get away from it!"

"No, Manny, we can't just leave her here, she'll die…"

"It's dyin' anyway, look at it!"

"Shush, Manny, she's scared enough already! Oh, she's so small… I think she's just a child! …It's alright, little one, we're going to help you. Just hold on." And there were arms beneath her, and the feeling of being lifted; she moaned softly, it hurt to be moved.

"We're what?! Kei, put it down, we should walk away… this is weird stuff, we don't want to get involved." But the male voice no longer sounded so certain, so demanding.

"I am not leaving her here to die, Manny, and I know you won't either, whatever you say; now come on, we have to get her to the house." She felt herself shifted in the arms that held her, and a vague awareness of movement. The last of her strength faded away. The final thought in her mind became the last words on her lips, a frightened whimper.

"Master Skywalker…" and everything slipped away into darkness.