Anakin opens his eyes to a white stone ceiling. He blinks, then blinks again, his entire body tingling with the trails of what once was blinding pain.
He tries to recall what happened, but his memories are foggy. The force is...strange around him, as well as the slight tremors he can feel through the ground he's laying on. It tells him someone's beside him, just starting to move. A primal instinct makes him stand.
When he both feels something brush his shoulders and feels his own skin at the same time, Anakin looks down. He expects to see his arm, having fallen from where it rested against his chest. Or maybe...well, anything else. What he sees is a long, blue and white striped lekku. He sees a second lekku, both of them framing either side of his shoulders. He stares, his brain still unable to comprehend what happened. Then, he touches them.
"Kriff!" Anakin gasps, jumping away from the lekku with no success. They follow him, connected somewhere on his head. He can feel their weight now, pulling his head forward oddly, but also back. And when he bumps against a wall, he feels another limb get pinched between his body and the stone. "Karking Bantha!" The curses are all he can process, all he can say. Because what do you say to suddenly having Togruta patterned lekku attached to your head?
Looking down again is a bad idea, Anakin finds. While his right hand hasn't changed -still durasteel covered in a black glove- the other is now a stark white with simple red markings on it. He gapes down, flexing his fingers over and over. It feels real but...but it has to be a dream. Something his mind has conjured up out of stress or-or anything else! Anything but...
"M-Master?" Ahsoka's soft, fragile voice calls to him and he turns, wincing again when the lekku -because they aren't his lekku, he's human and humans don't have lekku- shift too. He stops at the sight of her. No longer a lighter orange, her skin has turned a dark brown. Her head is now covered in thick, coiled hair that rests flat where she was laying on it. Her eyes are the same, albeit terrified.
"Ahsoka?" He doesn't exactly hear his own voice. Or anything, for that matter. It's not like his ears, which would pick up sounds without much notice. Instead, he feels the sounds through the montrals atop his head, their vibrations translating words and tones. It pushes him right back to the edge of panic, but he's able to stop himself when he sees Ahsoka beginning to hyperventilate. "Hey, hey! Calm down, it's gonna be okay!" He crawls toward her, placing a hand on her shoulder.
Ahsoka shakes her head quickly, flinching when her hair moves with her. "What- I can't-" She's breathing too hard and it's worrying to say the least. He catches himself beginning to breathe just as quickly. No, he can't panic. He's her master and he won't let himself fall apart. Not when she needs him.
Tightening his grip, Anakin pulls her attention with a slight shake. "Let's breathe for a second, okay? Take a deep breath in," They do it together. "And out." His exhale is a little less shaky than hers, but not by much. "Repeat."
And they do. For a long moment, they just breathe together, trying to steady themselves in each other and the force. Though, the force does feel a little different and it doesn't help as much as he would've liked.
Then, once Anakin's sure they won't pass out, he lets go of her. "Alright. Now, let's..." Figure this out? Find out what the kriff happened to them? Call for backup? All of the above, he decides.
"We touched an artifact." Ahsoka tells him and the memories come back immediately. A mission to find some kind of Jedi temple long forgotten. As soon as they entered the building, it felt like Mortis; the force near vibrating all around them, calling to them. And when they found an artifact, well...
Blinding pain, the feeling of something very wrong happening to him all at once. Then, he woke up like this.
Great.
"So," Anakin says dumbly. He taps his fingers, itching for something to occupy his hands with while his mind works. "We somehow switched...species?" It sure looks like it. There's no other reason for him to become a Togruta and her a human if they weren't impacting each other.
Now what?
"Rex." Anakin pulls out his comm faster than he probably should, but he's already clicking buttons and the captain picks up within the first ring. This is why he loves his men.
"General! We've been waiting outside for an hour now! We worried you got yourselves lost." Not killed. Lost. Anakin doesn't have the brain capacity to roll his eyes.
"We're...well, alright isn't exactly a great word for it." He looks back to Ahsoka, who's starting to stare at the old bones they found while walking into the room. "Uninjured." He supplies. "And in need of some backup. Send in a few men. We need to transport an articaft without touching it." Because if it can change him and Ahsoka, then he doesn't want to know what it'd do to a clone, if anything. But he'd rather not chance it. "And bring Kix too."
"On our way, General." And like that, the call ends and they're left to wait.
"I see." It's all Rex says once the situation has been explained.
Anakin sighs, his eyes never moving from where Kix is looking Ahsoka over. She's never struggled so hard to overcome something. It's just not how Ahsoka is. She bounces back, overcomes her trials with confidence and an easy smile. She's braver than he'll ever be, and yet...
He feels Rex's movements through the air. "General, I think we should contact someone about this. General Kenobi-" Anakin's eyes harden and he breaks his gaze to look at the captain. Without his helmet, Anakin can see Rex rethinking his statement. "Or perhaps another Jedi? At the very least, we should return to Coruscant."
Slowly, Anakin nods -he ignores the feeling of his lekku rubbing against his shoulders very pointedly. "Probably." Is all he can say. If this were a battle, he'd make up some excuse to keep fighting, but it's not. And with how pale Ahsoka looks? He doesn't want to make things worse. "Okay. Yeah, that's a good plan. Go back to Coruscant and figure it out." Surely someone at the Jedi temple will recognize the artifact. Master Yoda, or Windu maybe? Jocasta Nu?
He looks at Ahsoka again. She's saying something to Kix and from the look on her face, she's starting to calm down. A small, hesitant smile twitches at her lips.
Good. She's recovering.
"Sir?" Anakin blinks, looking up again. Rex motions toward the group of clones carefully slipping the artifact into a case. "Have you tried touching it again? To see if it would reverse this?"
"No." Anakin answers immediately, his eyes narrowing at the slightly glowing object. "And I don't want to try it until we get more information. I know I have a reputation for reckless plans, but this isn't something I'm willing to risk." Not when it could only make things worse. The force is not something one can mess around with.
Rex doesn't respond, but he doesn't need to. Instead, he leaves Anakin's side to help take the case into their transport ship. Anakin watches them until they've all disappeared inside, then walks toward the medical tent. He trusts Rex to give orders for their return to Coruscant. Ahsoka is his focus right now.
"Hey." Ahsoka startles at his voice, but her surprise fades when she looks at him. Shaky and trying to cover it up. "You alright?"
"I will be." Ahsoka admits, her smile a little pained. "I guess I never really noticed how different Humans and Togruta are." Anakin snorts.
"Well, you'll have the whole ride back to Coruscant to get used to it, and then some. Kix," Kix nods his attention. "If she's done getting checked, then start packing things into the transport. You can grab Fives to help you if you need."
Kix hesitates, his eyes staring intently at Anakin as if to say "you're not getting out of your own check-up that easy", but with a firm nod, the clone starts gathering his supplies. A small pool of dread settles into Anakin's stomach -does he still have one stomach?- at the thought of his inevitable torture.
There's a tap on his hand -his very white hand- and Anakin looks down to meet Ahsoka's gaze. Her eyes sweep the camp, then settle on a tree stump a few paces away. She heads for it, a slight pull through their bond telling him all he needs to know. He follows, only stopping once she's seated.
"Master, I don't know if going back to Coruscant is a good idea." Her voice seems soft, but he can hear it perfectly through the vibrations in his montrals.
He thinks of kneeling beside her, then settles on leaning against a tree. If he takes this too seriously, she may start freaking out again. "How so, Snips?" He tries for casual and hopes it's effective.
Ahoska begins tapping her fingers against the wood. "It's not that I feel ready to go back into battle but...everyone's going to see me like this. And it's just...you know. Gonna be weird."
A pause. "Well, you do pass really well for a human. I don't think you'd catch anyone's attention, honestly. Especially if you wore traditional Jedi robes. No one would recognize you." And if it weren't for her force presence, facial structure, and the fact he was right there when she turned human, he probably wouldn't be able to tell either.
The frown that crosses his Padawan's face tells him that wasn't the right thing to say. "That's just the problem, Master." Ahsoka huffs, her arms crossing over her chest. Defensive and insecure. "I feel like a part of me is gone. I'm brown, not orange. And my hair is...well, hair! I don't have any markings, no instincts! Nothing! I don't feel like I'm the same person, Master!" Her eyes are wide again. "It's scary."
Despite knowing each other for two whole years, Anakin still finds himself struggling to respond to her. Should this be a teaching moment, or not? Obi-Wan would make it one, but that's Obi-wan. And he can't just ignore this, because he feels it too. A strange urge telling him to always know his surroundings. To pay special attention to the wildlife. Something he never felt so strongly before. It's both in his body, and the force.
It's simply not right.
"Tell you what," Anakin starts, still not sure if this is even going to work. "Let's head out for Coruscant and on the ride there, we can do some meditation. And if that doesn't help, maybe starring will."
Ahsoka's expression doesn't fade. "And if that doesn't help either?"
This time, he smiles down at her. "Then we'll do something else. I can braid your hair, or we can trade biology facts." Whatever they don't already know, at least. "I promise, you won't feel like this forever."
It seems to ease her worry just enough to let her face rest. She nods once, then twice as she stands. With a deep breath, Ahsoka looks right into his eyes, newfound confidence bleeding into her whole body. "Alright."
With a gentle hand on her shoulder, he guides them back toward the ship, the knots in his stomach loosening. They'll be alright. It'll be a learning experience, one no one else in the galaxy has likely ever had. And they'll be all the better for it.
"Besides." Ahsoka says just as they make it up the ramp. She looks up at him with a cheeky smile. "You don't make a half bad Togruta either."
This will kind of be a collection of One-shots for this idea. If anyone has suggestions on character reactions or scenes they'd like to see, I'll take those into account (not a promise I'll use all of them).