Star Wars One-Shots

Lend Me An Arm

Author's Note: Welp, I decided to write this, because I was wondering how Ahsoka found out about Anakin's prosthetic arm. :) This is canon-compliant. :D

~ Amina Gila

It's not her fault that she screamed. No one ever told her that her master lost an arm, and she never thought she would find out like this. Or, when Ahsoka learns that Anakin has a prosthetic arm.

In retrospect, it should have been obvious, and Ahsoka feels stupid for not realizing sooner.

She has only been a Padawan for a month – not quite, at this point, but it's close – and the battle is going on longer than anticipated. Everyone is exhausted, worn out, especially Ahsoka, who is still accustoming herself to extended battles. She deflects yet another blaster bolt into what feels like the millionth battle droid, deactivating it. It falls, and she pauses, breathing heavily, wiping sweat from her forehead.

Her master is moving far slower than usual near her; he glances sideways, concern in his expression. "You okay, Snips?" he questions above the blasterfire. "This is the last of them."

"I'm fine, Master," she promises, springing forwards into the fray again. Normally, she would be fine, but she's not at her best, and her muscles are aching from so much extended use. Anakin flips forwards, planting himself between her and a series of blaster bolts which might have ended her life. He deflects most of them, but one hits the lower part of his right arm.

He flinches, and Ahsoka could swear that there's sparks flying. Without missing a beat, he switches his lightsaber to his left hand, plunging the blade into the center of a super battle droid before Force pushing it backwards. It flies into six battle droids, and they crash to the ground, smoking.

"Skyguy!" she exclaims, worried.

"Don't worry about me," Anakin replies, punctuating each word with a deflected blaster bolt. "I'm fine."

She watches him for a moment before determining that he isn't going to collapse from the injury he must have sustained, so she returns her focus to the droids. Her master is right. This is the last of them, and then, they can finally rest.

Anakin had gone to his quarters instead of the medbay upon returning to the Star Destroyer which has landed on the planet near the Republic base. After having her own injuries tended to, Ahsoka goes to find her master, fully intending to chide him for neglecting himself. She enters the code, and the door slides open. Anakin is sitting at a work bench, the sleeve of his right arm pulled up to reveal metal. Parts and wires dangle all around as Anakin digs through his toolkit with his left hand.

Ahsoka lets out a shriek of surprise, mingled with alarm, because his arm is metal. Her master starts, dropping the tool in his hands and muttering a curse under his breath as he hastily yanks his sleeve down to cover the arm. "Calm down, Snips," he admonishes, waving a hand and closing the door to his cabin behind her. "There's no need to cause a scene."

"You have a prosthetic?!" she exclaims, voice high-pitched with shock. She has always known, of course, on an intellectual level that her master is a human, a sapient being not so different from herself. But she and the other Padawans her age all looked up to him because he was – and still is – called the Chosen One. It's odd to see his humanity, to learn that he is not the all-perfect hero she had envisioned.

And honestly, Ahsoka can't say why it shocks her so much that he has a prosthetic. Probably because it's proof that he failed once, and the cost was high. It makes him less of a hero and more of a person. That's a good thing, she supposes, but she's still completely mind blown at her discovery. And wait. Why did no one tell her about this earlier?