Hello! Wow, so this is actually happening! I am extremely nervous and excited. This is my first official multi-chapter fic, and it's the first time that I'll be posting something that I'm still working on. Just a few things you should know before you start reading:

1. The first two lines of dialogue come directly from the Phantom Menace, right before the assault on Theed Palace begins.

2. This is taking place towards the end of the Ryloth arc from Season 1 of the Clone Wars animated show. It immediately goes into AU territory after that.

3. This story makes reference to one of my others, Reemerging Daylight, but it's not required to read that to understand this one.

Enjoy!

The battle was about to begin. The Force was heavy with the anticipation, but Qui-Gon turned his focus on the moment at hand, knowing that he had to take back the Queen's Palace. He could feel the Queen's people, almost vibrating with apprehension. There was little time left. Qui-Gon kneeled to face Anakin. "Once we get inside, you'll find a safe place to hide and stay there," he said.

The boy nodded. "Sure," he answered, but there was hesitance in his voice, almost an uncertainty.

Qui-Gon held up a finger, making sure that Anakin would listen. "Stay there," he repeated. The boy nodded a few more times in reassurance. Qui-Gon moved to stand up, but as soon as he straightened to his full height, everything changed. The living Force seemed to shift and flip inside-out in a matter of mere seconds. One moment, Qui-Gon was standing next to his padawan and Ani, ready to help the Queen of Naboo take her palace back from the Trade Federation. The next moment, he was somewhere else.

He looked around. Before, he was surrounded by the Queen's forces and Obi-Wan and Anakin, but now he stood alone, on a different planet. "What?" he asked, looking around his surroundings. He couldn't tell exactly where he was. The sky was a pale yellow color. He was surrounding by rock formations and mountains, and he could feel the dust in the air. This was not Naboo.

He scanned through his planetary knowledge, trying to remember if he's been to this system before. He then reached into the Force, hoping that it would tell him. He sensed many Twi'leks, far, far away. Ryloth.

He reached into his Force bond with Obi-Wan, trying to see if he can at least sense if his padawan was near the area or somewhere else. But the moment he reached for the bond, he realized that the bond was…dead. It was mangled and completely, utterly, destroyed. He couldn't sense Obi-Wan at all. A bond could only go into that state through death. Was Obi-Wan…? No. "What?" he repeated, voice quieter.

Qui-Gon took a deep breath and studied his surroundings more closely. He saw the remains of several machines and droids, and in the distance, he could feel several life forms a few miles away. A lot of the life forms, though, were the same life form, but different. They were definitely human, but it was as though it was the same person, just multiple times. Amongst that, however, was something a bit more familiar to him. A Jedi. He sighed in relief and turned towards the life forms. He had a lot of walking to do.

He walked about a mile or so when he saw two men in the distance. "Excuse me!" he called to them. They turned around and stared at him, stunned.

As he came closer, Qui-Gon realized they both wore Mandalorian armor, faces covered by helmets. One man had a hand print painted on the chest piece of his armor, but besides that, the armor was identical. He thought back briefly to the year he spent on Mandalore with Obi-Wan, the sheer number of times he had to duel Mandalorian bounty hunters. Were these men bounty hunters too?

"I'm afraid this may be a bit of a strange question," Qui-Gon began, nearly out of breath. "I'm a bit lost; could you tell me where I am?"

"Are you a civilian?" one of them asked. His voice was distinctly Mandalorian, but he seemed friendly enough.

"No, I was…well, somewhere else, and I don't know how I ended up here," Qui-Gon admitted.

"Fives, look!" the other man said. Qui-Gon's eyebrows raised in surprise when he realized that both men had the same exact voice. The man who just spoke was gesturing at his lightsaber, sitting innocently at his belt.

"Are you a Jedi?" the man called Fives asked.

Qui-Gon briefly considered lying, but figured that maybe this was the way to find the other Jedi on this planet. "Yes," he answered. "I'm Qui-Gon Jinn," he answered.

"I'm Echo, and this is Fives, sir. We'll take you to the general," the other man said. Both men removed their helmets, and Qui-Gon barely suppressed the urge to widen his eyes. They were identical, except for a tattoo on Fives' temple, fittingly of the number "5". "Our base is about two miles from here," Echo continued.

"The general?" Qui-Gon asked. Did he somehow end up in a war zone? He couldn't exactly think of any major conflicts going on in the galaxy, so this surprised him.

Fives looked around, scanning carefully. "We should head back, Echo; it looks all clear on this side," he said. Echo nodded in agreement and put his helmet back on. Once Fives had his helmet back on too, Qui-Gon followed them back, feeling more confused than before.

Anakin sighed and scrubbed at his face. Ever since Obi-Wan left for Coruscant, it seemed that getting supplies for the civilians of Nabat felt more impossible. Obi-Wan was the one who was good at dealing with people, anyways. Anakin would rather be flying or working on his starfighter right now. Obi-Wan pretty much freed all of the Twi'lek villagers before Anakin arrived, but there were still a few droids scattered around the outskirts of the city.

It was hard to focus on the mission at hand when Obi-Wan was…

"General!"

Anakin sighed and turned around to see Fives and Echo walking towards him. They saluted at him quickly before briefing him.

"We found a man who claimed to be a Jedi, sir, but neither of us have seen him before," Fives explained, as they both moved sideways and a tall man walked closer to him.

The man had long, brown-grey hair and kind blue eyes. His hair was in slight disarray, but as Anakin looked at him carefully, his eyes widened. "Master Qui-Gon?" he asked, voice cracking. He remembered sitting at his funeral pyre almost twelve years ago, it was impossible for him to be here. He remembered sitting next to Obi-Wan for hours, watching the Jedi Master's body turn into ash.

Qui-Gon looked at him carefully. "Do I know you? You appear to be a Jedi, but I'm afraid we must not have met…" He trailed off as he looked at Anakin carefully. "Wait…Ani? Anakin?"

Anakin nodded slowly. "This doesn't make sense," he said. "You shouldn't be here, Master," Anakin said.

"I was just with you, Anakin; you were a little boy. What happened? Where's Obi-Wan?" Qui-Gon asked.

For the millionth time, Anakin wished Obi-Wan was here, but instead he took a deep breath and began to explain, even though he had no idea what just happened.