Well, apparently it's at least somewhat good, 'cause people asked for more. :D So, here you go with chapter one. Hopefully it'll remain good; I'd hate to disappoint. Please keep the reviews coming; this one's fun and I'd hate to give in to writer's block on it – the bane of every writer's existence, please someone Force-choke it for me. XD Anyways, enjoy!

Chapter One

Consciousness was slow in returning. She was a bit glad for that – consciousness hurt. Her side ached, her head throbbed, her leg was searing agony, and there were sharp – but graciously short – jolts of pain shooting through her stomach every few seconds. But, as awareness and feeling flooded back in, none of that compared to the empty, aching void in her chest; that anguish she could not place and could not name but that was worse than anything else that this wakening could throw at her.

She forced her pain to the back of her mind as best she could – focus, come on, girl, focus – and tried to figure out exactly what was going on. She was… on a mattress… wrapped in a soft quilt… something warm and – furry? – was beside her... purring? She tried to open her eyes, turn her head to look; even the tiny movement shot daggers through her aching body, and she groaned softly. The purring increased and the furry thing shifted; it was nuzzling her. But something else was returning, with awareness and pain; fear that threatened to become outright panic, and a sense of urgency she couldn't define – the feeling that she had to go somewhere, or do something, and that it was very important. She struggled to sit up before she'd even managed to fully open her eyes, the pain intensifying horribly at the movements. There was a voice, quiet and gentle, and then a cool hand on her forehead pushing her carefully back down. A soft, frightened whimper escaped her lips; she was a bit embarrassed by the sound, for some reason she couldn't place. The voice came again, unfamiliar but gentle and soothing.

"Hush, child, relax… it's alright, you're safe. Stay still. No more fear, now… no one's going to hurt you." Her half-opened eyes picked out the blurry form above her – a human… a female… dark hair, light eyes; she couldn't tell anything more. The immediate panic was fading with the words, allowing thought to return. Why was she scared? What was wrong? What was it she needed to… the ghost of a memory struck her like a physical blow; a name, someone, someone who was very important.

"M-master… Master Skywalker…" Her voice was weak, ragged, and raspy; she was suddenly made aware that her mouth and throat were very dry. A hand slipped behind her head, and she was lifted slowly, carefully; a cup was held to her lips, and she was given a gentle order to drink. She didn't have the strength to argue at all. The initial feeling of cool water on her dry throat made her cough a bit, but she recovered quickly. The water was beautifully refreshing; she could feel strength returning with each swallow. She quickly emptied the cup.

"There we go. That's better, isn't it?" The human's tone, as if she were talking to a very young child, might have annoyed her in any other situation – though she wasn't quite sure why – but right now, she couldn't bring herself to care. She was laid carefully back against the pillows, and here was that furry, purring thing again – a feline-like creature, grey-and-white with blue eyes, two tails, and three pairs of legs – nuzzling her softly and settling down with its head on her shoulder. Friendly thing. She blinked at it. The human was talking again. "Good to see you finally awake, dear; you had us worried there, for a couple days, you know. Manarin thought you weren't going to pull through. But, I told him, we can't go giving up on you, you seemed a strong little thing, to have lasted as long as you did…" Blue-grey eyes followed the human as she bustled around, straightening a pillow here, tucking in a sheet there, until a hand came to rest on her forehead once again. "Still a bit of a fever – I think – but it's not as bad as it was yesterday. Hopefully you're on the mend."

"Who… who're you?" she managed, the moment she was able to sneak a word in edge-wise. It might not have been the most polite question, but the woman wasn't striking any chords in her memory – not much was, she had to grudgingly admit – and she thought she might feel a bit less lost if she had a name to put to face.

"Oh, of course, where are my manners? I'm Keida. My husband Manarin and I found you about four days ago, out on the plains, near a bunch of metal wreckage. We assumed you were in some sort of crash… you're pretty beat up, little one. Of course, we brought you back here to our homestead in the hopes we could help you."

She blinked slowly, trying to process this. Plains? Crash? It was unnerving that she couldn't recall anything of the sort… a fact that became increasingly frightening as she realized, bit-by-bit, that she couldn't recall much of anything. Why was her mind so hazy? She'd never felt like this before. "Four days?" It was the only thing she could grasp well enough to ask about – four days was too long. Too long for what?

"Yes, about that, now. Like I said, you were – well, are – pretty badly hurt. You've been unconscious most of the time. This is the first time you've been awake and coherent, and it is a relief, dear, let me tell you. That hunk of metal you were in took quite a beating… must have been a long fall?" Keida eyed her for a moment, but when she had no answer, continued. "Never seen anything quite like it. From the looks of it, though, it's a miracle you survived… I'm glad we found you when we did." Despite her friendly, conversational tone, Keida was nervous and on-edge, she could feel it – she wasn't sure how she could tell, but she could. It made her feel worried and a little suspicious, like… like there was something she wasn't being told; something else going on here that she didn't know about. But, her mind felt so hazy, so unfocussed… maybe she was just imagining it all, being paranoid… "Do you have a name, dear?" Keida's question pulled her out of her musings. And proceeded to effectively spur her into new ones.

"Uh…" Name. Sure, she had a name. Everyone had a name. It would be ridiculous for her not to have a name. So… what the brix was her blinking name? Keida was looking at her with an odd expression of expectation and concern. "Well… I…" Come on, she had to have a name. She wracked her mind trying to pull up some memory that would answer this simple question. Oh, yeah? And what is that supposed to mean, Snips? The voice sounded in her head, amused and a bit teasing. Snips? Was that her name? No… something in her said it wasn't, no matter how right it sounded. Beyond that, she felt it was something special, something… private, she supposed, something too sacred for this unfamiliar woman to call her by. So that wouldn't do. She tried to pull up something different, call on that same voice again. When she got it to repeat in her head again, it was no longer teasing, but urgent, frantic. I said get in the pod, Ahsoka! Now! That's an order! It shot a new jolt of fear through her, that urgent tone, but it also gave the answer to the question. "Ahsoka," she responded, aware that the pause had been unusually long for such an easy question. "My… my name's Ahsoka Tano."

Keida nodded. "Ahsoka," she repeated, as if testing the word. "Alright. Well… excuse me for being frank, Ahsoka…" Who's 'Frank'? Ahsoka wondered vaguely, "no offense meant, of course, but… what are you?"

This question surprised her. "I'm a Togruta, of course!" she responded with hardly a thought – it would occur to her in a few moments that it was a bit odd that she'd remember that with more ease than she recalled her own name.

"Tuh-groo-ta?" Keida sounded out slowly. Ahsoka winced slightly at the slight marring of the word.

"Uh… c-close enough." The feline gave an amused 'mrow', and she lifted one arm to scratch behind its ears, trying to stop her hand from shaking. "Haven't… haven't you heard of us? We're from…" it took her a second or two to bring up the name of the planet; it was warring with the name 'Coruscant' in her head, though she knew that one was wrong. "Shili."

For a third time Keida repeated the word after her – as if it was something she'd never heard before – gazing thoughtfully off to the side. The feeling Ahsoka had of something being wrong here was getting stronger and stronger. She narrowed her eyes and made an attempt to sit up, but this shot such a jolt of pain through her side and stomach that she fell back with a little gasp, hand moving to clutch at her aching side. This snapped Keida out of her daze. "Oh dear, no, no, no, little one, stay still. Slow breaths, now… that's it." Before Ahsoka really knew what was happening the woman was sitting beside her on the bed, leaning worriedly over her, grasping her wrist lightly and trying to pull her hand away from her side. "Here, here, let me see…" Moments of examining bandages, then a small sigh of relief. "Good, good, no worries. I don't think you re-opened anything."

Despite such reassurances, Ahsoka lay perfectly still for a bit longer, eyes closed, waiting for the pain to fade. She was vaguely aware of the feline-thing, rudely unseated by her sudden movement but settling without grudge or prejudice back into its former position curled against her; the purr was comforting, and she was oddly glad for the creature's presence. "W-where am I?" She asked when she felt capable of speaking again.

"Well, we're a little farm, out on the Yellow Plains – guess you could kind of say we're one of those 'middle of nowhere' places, but we're only a couple hundred miles from…"

"No," Ahsoka interrupted, not concerned about politeness at the moment, "where? What… what planet is this?" She eyed the human with a new suspicion as another question struck her; she didn't know the full meaning of it, but knew that the answer was important nonetheless. "Are y-you… Republic, Separatist, or neutral?"

Keida blinked at her, looking as if she'd just had a number of suspicions confirmed and wasn't quite sure what to do with them now. "Planet, dear? Well… this is Terrania. We're Terranean. I don't know what you mean, 'Republic' or 'Separatist'…"

"Are you w-with the droids?" Ahsoka demanded. Droids were bad. Droids were the enemy. She was certain of that much. Keida was looking more confused by the second – Ahsoka could relate.

"Droids? What… like robots? No, child, there are no… 'droids' here." Ahsoka could do little but believe her. She had no evidence to the contrary. Her head was whirling with this new information; she felt frightened again. She'd never heard of 'Terrania'. She could pull up the names of myriad planets in her mind – admittedly she had no memory of how she knew so many, nor of what most of them meant to her – but she knew of them, and she knew nothing of this place. Republic or Separatist? How did one 'not know'? She hardly remembered her own name and she still knew she was staunchly on the Republic's side. Why was this so important? She wasn't sure, but she knew it was. Fear was squeezing her heart again, reminding her of that void, that pain, which brought the name back to her mind and she cursed herself for forgetting him for even a moment.

"Master Skywalker. Did you find him? W-was he… was he there?"

Keida shook her head slightly. "Who is this 'Skywalker'? Another… Togruta?"

Ahsoka shook her head in frustration. "He's my Master," she snapped irritably. "He's… he's a human like you… t-taller than me, adult… brown h-hair, blue eyes…" the more she talked the more she realized the question was pointless; if he were here, he'd be with her – she would sense him, she would feel his presence, it would be him sitting here with her and not this Keida person. He was the only thing she could clearly remember, and she knew in the depths of her heart he would not leave her alone like this, in this condition, if he could help it. She looked up at the woman with a mixture of hopelessness and pleading in her eyes. "Please," she begged, all irritation disappearing and leaving only painful desperation in her tone, "Was he there… is he here?"

Keida's eyes answered her before her words did. "I'm sorry, Ahsoka… we only found you. There was no one else there, not outside of that thing you landed here in." Ahsoka closed her eyes tightly, trying to fight the renewed twisting in her heart and the tears that threatened to accompany it. No… nonononono, this can't be happening… he can't be gone… Keida's hand on her shoulder brought her partially back to reality, but she refused to open her eyes. "Are… were you… how is he your 'Master'? Are you a… slave, of some sort? A servant?"

Ahsoka shook her head. "No…" But even as she said it, she felt uncertain. "I don't think so… oh, stang, I don't know." A few tears escaped her eyes and she reached up to wipe them away. This was all too much at once. She was shaking again; she felt overwhelmed. There was a terrible pressure in her chest as more tears threatened, and it hurt to breathe this hard but she couldn't calm herself. Something in some corner of her mind kept telling her that she wasn't supposed to cry, so she kept swiping at the rebellious tears with the back of her hand. "I d-don't… know where I am and… I don't know wh-where he… is and I b-barely know… who I am and… I don't know what's g-going on… I just don't know…" And her voice trailed off, sounding very small and very young, and she couldn't wipe the tears away fast enough to stop them falling.

"Oh, sweetie…" and Keida's arms were around her, lifting her carefully so that she was sitting up and holding her in a careful embrace. "It's alright… it'll be okay." Ahsoka just shook her head, burying her face against the woman's shoulder, shaking with quiet sobs. The feline nuzzled against her back and mewed in concern, and Keida tightened her arms around the trembling young girl. "I'll take care of you… we'll figure this out… everything's going to be alright." Ahsoka nestled against her and gave up on trying to stop the tears, and wished with all her heart that she could believe that.