Synchronous

001: Crack, 2%

"You can never truly understand a person unless you yourself are that person" is quite a realist line of thought. Some might even call the statement pessimistic or even downright nihilistic — without a drop of youthful, starry-eyed idealism. Even so, regardless of a one's philosophical class or personal opinions, one has to admit there is at least a sliver of 'correctness' in that statement from all points of view.

What is that person feeling?

Why is that person acting in that way?

Why did that person do those things?

We as humans can never truly know since we can never become that person —

— right?

anomaly 01

He remembers the rolling sand hills of Tatooine. He remembers how the wind caressed them, how it created grooves and ruts along the hills' otherwise smooth surface, how it sometimes kicked up the sand in a swirling storm of brown and gray.

He remembers the taste of the air — grainy, thin, so dry that just breathing it in made his throat ache.

He remembers the touch of light from the twin suns on his skin. He remembers their dual intensities and what time of day their rays were at their fiercest.

He remembers the hum of his racer beneath his palm — the cool metal vibrating beneath his fingertips, the engine guttering noisily on stall. He remembers the vehicles scratches, its faults, its mismatches, the components he'd replaced and fixed. He even remembers the coin he'd wedged in between the base of its wheel and its dashboard in a fit of boredom on a hot summer afternoon.

He remembers the slosh of blue milk in his glass cup, the clash and clank of dishes in the sink, her quiet hum as she set the table for three.

He remembers all of these things to every minuscule detail, to every grain of sand, to every cloud dotting the horizon, but—

— he is quite uncertain whether or not these are truly 'his' memories at all.

Anakin felt it before he felt it.

He was in the heart of the battlefield with his lightsaber drawn out and ignited when he felt the thing — the thing being quite distracting amidst the cacophony of the battlefield. Blaster bolts were pelting down into bodies, rocks, ground, dirt — eating away everything and everyone without discrimination like acid rain. The mechanical thump, thump, thump of approaching droids was constant. Dirt was hung up in the air like a suffocating blanket with nowhere to go but around the large slabs of rocks that littered the ground, around the troopers firing into the field, around the droids firing back at them.

Captain Rex was several feet away from him and was shooting precisely at the oncoming droids. Their mechanical parts littered the ground along with their weapons and on occasion a clone helmet or two.

Yes, given his current circumstance, Anakin was almost distracted and almost caught off guard when he felt it. "Almost" was a keyword.

It was like a bright beacon blinking in and out of existence in a way that seemed to shout 'Hey! Look here! I'm an anomaly!' — a bright beacon in the Force that is. A disturbance almost, but not quite. An almost disturbance. And "almost" was a keyword here as well.

Something was coming. Something big. Coming in like a rocket — no, like a bright, hot, scalding meteor. Searingly bright, like an imperceptible falling star.

...so perhaps "almost" was not the correct word to describe it after all.

Anakin's communicator suddenly crackled and then buzzed to life. Unsurprisingly, Obi-wan was on the other end of the com—

"Anakin—"

"Yeah, Obi-wan," Anakin grunted, redirecting blaster bolts with turned angles of his lightsaber, "I feel it too." Deflecting several more of the red rays, he added a bit more sarcastically: "Looks like we're being rewarded for our valiant efforts on the field."

"I'm on my way to the rendezvous point. I'll be with you shortly." — his com crackled with the Jedi master's reply — "Then, we can find out what this 'reward' is together."

Bemused sarcasm. Clear as day.

Anakin smirked at the remark, reflecting several more blaster bolts and then leaping backwards several feet to his Captain's side.

The opposing army was thinning out steadily; and the Jedi Knight could see with his eyes as well as feel with the Force that they had finally managed to thin out the enemy so much so that now the enemy was outnumbered instead of vice versa. Only a tank there, a handful of droids here, and of course that irritatingly bright disturbance.

"General?" Rex greeted him questioningly over the background rumble of the battlefield. Dust covered the man from head to toe, but that didn't seem to affect his abilities at all. Every shot from his blaster connected with its target in a flash of red and scrap metal.

"Obi-wan is a few clicks south. We just need to push through this last line of droids to meet up with him." Anakin informed him, as he cut down a droid to his left. "Stay sharp. Something big is coming."

Rex gave him what he could only guess was a concerned or confused look, before he nodded. "Copy that, General."

And so they pushed forward south. Droids fell left and right downed by the rain of incoming blaster bolts as well as by the precise swings of the Jedi's lightsaber. Some of the droids appeared to have noticed that the battle was souring in their favor and several of them began to fire more erratically than before while others appeared to turn heel and flee.

Easier targets, Anakin thought callously as he sliced three droids clean in half. The tangy smell of burnt metal was beginning to thicken in the air.

Of course, there just had to be droids who made things more difficult rather than easier along with the masses. One in particular that caught Anakin's attention was a lone commando droid several clicks away amongst the swarm of other droids. Its blue mechanical left arm was arched back behind its body and its hand was coiled around a circular object—

— and he felt the disturbance flare out like someone had uncapped the stabilizer in a proton detonator causing it to spill out energy in a tidal wave; he felt it burn almost as bright as the heart of a star—

"Detonator!"

Anakin saw the silver object glint through the haze of dust in the air, saw his men disperse at his signal, and saw the soaring object flash red. He caught the detonator mid-air with the Force, listened to the 'uh-oh's and 'oh no's of the droids, prepared to launch it back at the thinned out battalion—

And then, Anakin felt it.

It was like everything before had been merely build up to this moment, to this feeling. Like fluctuating air pressures before a sonic boom, like a catalyst rapidly quickening the rate of a reaction to a new equilibrium.

If what he felt was the imperceptible approach of a burning meteorite, then what he felt was the impact of that imperceptible thing. It's impact with his skull, that is.

It was unlike anything he had ever remotely felt before. And for a moment, he wondered if he was actually feeling anything at all. The feeling was so unnatural that there were no cues or similarities in the physical world that he could even compare it to. There was nothing — no word — to solidify it as real. Well, there was a word—

'Invasive'.

He felt it crash down into his skull like a downed ship with its hull scraping against the Force barrier within his mind. The scratching and scraping and sliding left a piercing ring in his ears. It was a ring that seemed to carry with it another sound — a voice that seemed to echo faintly in his mind like it was a recording or a memory of someone else.

FIND THE DISTURBANCE. RECTIFY THE WRONG. FIX THE ANOMALY. BRING BALANCE TO THE PAST SO THE FORCE MAY BE BALANCED IN THE FUTURE.

Gritting his teeth and swallowing a shout of pain that was arising in his throat, Anakin gripped his head tightly with his free hand as the ringing resonated and amplified.

The weight and size and power of the imperceptible thing was not what caught the war hero off guard; rather, it was the sheer force of impact, the scraping, the scratching, the expanding force of the Force that caused him to double over in agony. It was peeling away at everything around him as well as nothing at all at the same time. A paradox.

Tendrils leaked out from the cracks of the invasive thing and spilled out around the barrier within his mind. Strangely enough, despite the thing being invasive, painful, and searingly hot upon impact, the tendrils that were leaking from it were oddly…

Unfamiliarly familiar.

What?

Anakin paused, squinting through the haze of pain and dirt and dull sunlight, and made out glinting silver that flashed suddenly, almost violently. A bright red hue — brighter than before.

The high-pitched ringing in his mind began to resonate with a monotone drone emitting from the glinting object. Beep, beep, beep, beepbeepbeeep—

Shoot! The detonator—

"General!"

Shuffling footsteps. Another shout of confused alarm.

The glinting, floating detonator let loose one last shrill ring that seemed to match the exact frequency of the ring in Anakin's head, before it was swallowed whole by a painful flash of white, red, and gray. There was a roaring boom as the explosion expanded outwards from where the detonator formerly hung in the sky. Flames and smoky grayness shot out with such force that Anakin found himself knocked clean off of his feet.

For a fraction of a second, he was in the air floating seemingly freely. In the next, he was centimeters above the ground with his head millimeters above a rather sturdy looking rock. Not soon after, there was a sickening crack! as bone struck rock in the battlefield; and it was followed almost simultaneously by a quieter crack that echoed somewhere in the Force. And as Anakin lay there with smoke in his eyes, dirt in his lungs, and the taste of metal dry in his mouth, he could feel something leaking — something inside and outside.

Crimson clouded his vision as thoughts, memories, and feelings that were not his own clouded his mind.

Then there was darkness and silence.

anomaly 02

He is in deep meditation when it happens — or at least, he is attempting deep meditation. Attempting or not, he is quite disturbed when he feels it tug at the corners of his mind.

He cracks open an eye, breathes in the musty scents of plant life and smoke fire, and peers into the surrounding darkness. There, he can make out the shadowy outline of his companions in the black of the night. Unlike him, they seem to have not felt the tugging, the pulling, the disturbance.

Uncrossing his legs, he rises to a stand, brushes dirt and moss and grass from his pants, and peers deeper into the darkness. Reaches out with his mind—

— and then, he hears a voice. A quiet voice. Unfamiliar, yet not quite. Milky, yet stern. The voice says—

Certainly some soldiers felt that being in the heart of the battlefield was like injecting adrenaline straight into their hearts and dopamine into their brains, but clone Medical Officer Kix found that the real rush came after a battle ended.

Alcohol and antiseptic scents thick and heavy in the air mixed with iron from both dirt and blood, bodies shuffled left and right on hover pads, bacta pods prepped and ready, fellow med officers literally ablaze with fiery desperation to not increase casualty numbers any further —

— this was where the final front was, where the real rush came from.

Allowing such thoughts to fade from his mind, Kix slumped down into one of the stray white chairs of the medbay of his battalion's ship and sighed. The electric rush in his chest and mind had begun to ebb and all that he was left with was fatigue. Fatigue and minor satisfaction.

The casualties for this particular battle had been low. The precise numbers were floating somewhere in Kix's mind but he was to worn to bring them to the surface. Yes, the casualties had been low — few brothers killed, even fewer brothers injured. This time, however…

Kix ran a hand over his face and side glanced at the man lying on the particular medbed he was attending to.

General Anakin Skywalker. Shed of armor, dabbled with sweat and dirt, wrapped in linen bandages that were soon to be in need of changing, and completely unconscious. But definitely General Anakin Skywalker.

Now, the General had definitely taken many trips to the medbay before — he was 'the Hero with No Fear' after all — but for some reason this particular visit had Kix unnerved. The major head injury and concussion the man had received near the end of the battle were definitely worrisome, but Kix had definitely seen worse in some of the other soldiers before and they had come out of it fine. But…

Perhaps it was the numerous times Obi-wan visited the medbay with crossed arms, a quiet demeanor, and a typical stoic Jedi expression. Perhaps it was the briefest glint of concern and worry that had shown through the Jedi's facade as he'd looked the younger Jedi over. "He's stable. He'll be fine," Kix had told the General, "until we reach base. The medical station on this ship is well equipped, sir. I'll keep watch over him and the rest of the men until we touch down." But Kix himself wasn't sure if all was well in medbay city. After all—

— during the chaos that had followed the typical post-battle scenario in the med station, Skywalker had abruptly snapped to consciousness when the junior medical officers were attempting to tend to him. According to them, he had looked at them like they were strangers, asked them about the whereabouts of two unknown persons who were definitely not part of the battalion, shouted something about the Force, before promptly doubling over and fainting on the spot.

Of course — Kix knew — it wasn't rare to see a case of mild case of delirium in a soldier following a particularly straining battle, but this… this somehow felt different.

Quieting his perturbing thoughts, he listened to the drone of the heart monitors. They almost seemed in sync. Peaceful, even.

Suddenly, a soft groan followed by creaking and more groaning. The typical sounds of someone stirring to consciousness.

Kix straightened himself and shook the last tendrils of drowsiness from his mind, before he swiveled in his chair to attend to his General — his General who was now sitting upright, legs dangling over the bed, whilst he cradled his stomach and head. A groan escaped from the man's lips as his cerulean eyes swept the room. White walls; white hoverbeds; blue screens along the walls littered with numbers, letters, names; and finally—

— his gaze fell onto Kix. A strange expression flitted across his face as he looked over the medical officer, the medical officer who was soon pushing and easing him back onto the medbed.

"With all due respect, sir," Kix said almost sternly, "you are in no condition to be moving around!"

Strangely enough, Anakin complied to the request. He rested his head down slowly back onto the bed and tilted his head in Kix's direction.

The General observed him quietly, almost contemplatively — almost like how one would observe something that was out of place. His expression was guarded — no, hesitant — but curious. And perhaps even… a bit timid? Finally —

"Where…?" A pause. "Where am I?"

"In the medical bay on the cruiser, sir." Kix replied. "You got injured during the battle." He vaguely gestured to his head. "Knocked yourself pretty good in the head too."

A confused frown.

A mechanical hand reaching up towards white linen wrapped tightly around the head. Gentle prodding. And then—

"Ow… !"

Kix sighed with a raised brow. "Sir, I'd appreciate it if you didn't mess up my handiwork. You could rip open your stitches."

Skywalker looked him over carefully, before he lowered his mechanical hand and mumbled a quiet and confused apology.

Kix frowned this time.

No questions about the result of the battle, no questions about casualties, no sarcastic quips; only quiet compliance and curious contemplation.

"Sir, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask a few questions. Just a couple of things to make sure everything is in order." Kix said, clearing his throat. He reached down and took the holo-medchart that was hung beside the bed off of its hook. The screen, in turn, flickered to life. "First off, sir…"

It soon became apparent to him, however, that Anakin was not listening to him at all. Rather, the man seemed to be in deep, serious thought — a thought so deep that for a moment Kix thought of just letting him be. But Kix was a medical officer and when it came to medical procedure, he was always in the right.

"General Skywalker."

That got his attention.

"What's the last thing you remember clearly?"

Furrowed eyebrows. Another set frown. Tired, slightly clouded eyes.

"The last thing I remember…?"

Suddenly, almost unexpectedly, the doors to the medbay slid open. Two figures entered the room side-by-side. They were adorned in typical clone armor — almost identical save for the decorative coloration on each: yellow on one and blue on the other. Commander Cody and Captain Rex, together like always — just like Kenobi and Skywalker.

"Kix," Rex greeted with a slight nod as Kix stood at attention, "General Kenobi just wanted me to come down to check on General Skywalker." His gaze shifted to the said man on the bed; and he seemed to crack a smile behind his helmet. "I see that—"

— and suddenly Skywalker was on his feet. He was on his feet with an expression that was a mix of pain and surprise and confusion. His mechanical hand was thrown back almost protectively in Kix's direction, while his other hand was thrown outwards towards where Rex and Cody stood—

"Stormtroopers!"

— and the two men only had time to briefly glance at each other in confusion, before they were abruptly pushed right out of the medbay and into the hall by an invisible force.

"General, what are you doing?!" Kix snapped in alarm, raising his hands placatingly as Anakin turned on him. "That was Captain Rex and Commander Cody!"

Anakin — still looking troubled and confused and delirious in general — searched Kix's face as if he could find some sort of explanation to an unasked question there. His eyebrows then furrowed deeper; and he threw a glance towards the doorway as he reached at his belt. Kix took this momentary distraction to his advantage and quickly grabbed a tranquilizer that was lying on the table next to him. By the time, Anakin turned around again, the tranquilizer was carefully hidden behind the medical officer's back.

"My lightsaber…" Anakin mumbled to himself as he felt around his belt. He paused, eyes flickering up to Kix's face — the man's cerulean eyes were concentrated, searching and then they widened slightly. It was as if he had found an answer to his unasked question just by searching the clone's face. "No, they weren't stormtroopers… but… clone troopers…?" His gaze flitted over the officer again. "And… you're one too. I can sense it."

Delirium? Amnesia? Kix wasn't quite certain, but he was quite certain that he needed to sedate his general before he further harmed himself or others.

"Yes, General, CT-6116. Kix." The clone explained slowly, hesitantly. "Remember?"

"General?" Anakin repeated, looking more confused than ever. His eyes searched again and then widened further. "You think I'm…"

The medbay doors suddenly slid open again; and three figures rushed into the room. Two of the figures, unsurprisingly, were Rex and Cody. And the third—

"Anakin, what in the world do you think you're doing?" Came Obi-Wan Kenobi's exasperated shout. The Jedi General, robes still billowing from his entrance, stood in front of the two high-ranking officers with a steady yet concerned expression.

Anakin paused, turned, froze, studied, and seemed to realize something that was apparently very shocking. He pulled back ever so slightly, before a word slipped from his lips—

"Ben?"

Obi-wan frowned, raising a placating hand just as Kix himself had done.

Kix didn't think his General Skywalker's eyes could widen any further, but they did as Kenobi drew closer. Kix, however, didn't think much on it, because he had a more pressing matter to attend to.

"Wait…" Skywalker mumbled, shaking his head slightly, his eyes full of confusion. "Ben… Anakin? my fath…" His eyes flitted over his master's form, before his gaze locked onto something that was behind him. "I can't believe it…"

And then Kix, tranquilizer in hand, was on him. The former plunged the needle of the tranquilizer into the crook of the latter's neck, before he slammed down the plunger. The effect was almost instantaneous — eyes snapped back into the head, followed by a snap of the body as it fell backwards.

Kix caught Anakin as the man fell limply into his arms. And as he held him there (adrenaline was still coursing through his veins — he'd just sedated a Jedi after all), he found himself joined by a deeply troubled Obi-wan, a perturbed looking Cody, and a grim Rex. With some effort, they lugged the larger man back onto the medbed and then stood observing him.

There was uneasiness in the air.

"What in the world was that?" Cody finally muttered, taking off his helmet and tucking it under his arm. "The way he was looking at us…"

"Yeah," Rex hummed in agreement. His expression was tight. "It's the way the General looks at droids."

"It could be the head trauma. Got his mind and memories all confused. I've seen it before." Kix informed them. "Whether it's long lasting or temporary… well, we can't really be sure until he wakes up and I give him a full bioscan back on Coruscant"

Another pause.

The three clones remained silent and waiting — waiting for Obi-wan to say something, to give an order, to detail his opinion. The man in question, however, remained silent. His clear eyes were locked onto Anakin's face, his mouth was set into a firm frown, and his left hand held his chin firmly. They had never seen him so… unnerved before.

"Cody, Rex, I want you to report back to the command center. Make sure we arrive back on Coruscant as scheduled. I will remain here with Kix."

And that was that.

After some further exchanges, the captain and commander departed from the room.

As soon as they left, Kix immediately returned to his rounds and began to check up on the other injured soldiers in the bay. It was several minutes later that he returned to his General's bedside; and he found himself curiously eyeing Kenobi who was now sitting in an almost meditative position on a stray chair pulled up next to the bed (Kix assumed he was doing something Jedi-like using the Force, so he didn't question it). The man's eyes were closed, his breathing calm.

Kix cleared his throat. "His vitals check out, General…" He paused, hesitant, narrow-eyed. "... but you think it's something else…"

Kenobi cracked open an eye and glanced up at him. "Anakin and I felt a disturbance in the Force during the battle. I fear that Anakin has gotten himself into trouble again." A pause. "Whatever that disturbance was…. it may have given rise to his current condition."

anomaly 03

— the voice says —

FIND THE DISTURBANCE. RECTIFY THE WRONG. FIX THE ANOMALY. BRING BALANCE TO THE PAST SO THE FORCE MAY BE BALANCED IN THE FUTURE.

And then, with the words still ringing in his ears, the voice adds —

YOUNG LUKE, I WISH YOU AND YOUR COMPANIONS LUCK.

And the floor falls away beneath him.

A/N: I'm in Star Wars hell and I don't think anyone can save me OTL. I saw Rogue One a couple weeks ago which made me go back and watch Star Wars Rebels and then Star Wars: The Clone Wars and I somehow ended up re-watching all of the original trilogy too. So now... here we are. Suffering...

Anyways I hope you enjoyed! Updates will probably be once a week maybe until break ends! Reviews always appreciated!