AUTHOR'S NOTE
Not Rexsoka. Sorry to those fans. IN fact I'm not too big a fan on the pairing.. I think of them too much as brother and sister. Rated M for blood.. just violence in general… not taking chances.
She remembered back to when she first met the Captain. "Who's the youngling?"
She had fought by him, protected the clone and his company. In payment, they protected her. She was part of their squad. When Skyguy wasn't around , they were quite a excitable bunch. They rarely called her by her rank, more often "Kid" and "Ashoka". Ashoka found this amusing, technically she was four years older then them. They were kids. But in the end, they were all brothers.
"And sister." Rex would always add.
Ashoka remembered Rex's fierce protectiveness of her and his men. He would nearly take a laser to the head to rip down a droid too close to a trooper or herself. She would always scold him after what ever battle had taken place, but of course it was in vain. He had sworn to protect her, as most clones made a oath to do for their jedi officers. But Ashoka knew Rex did more then that. He treated her like one of his clone brothers.
"Who's there to give that experience if your not around?" he shrugged when she had once questioned his sanity for jumping after her into a irritating bushel of plants.
"You think about that as you scratch your skin off." she had chuckled, handing him a bacta cream.
"I was expecting my armor to protect me from it. How was I supposed to know it could go through my bodysuit?"
Experience outranks everything. One of the few thing Ashoka would always try to beat Rex in.
She listened to his men chuckle about the way he walked with a type of swagger with his kama and pauldron; with his knack for hearing these comments he gave them a sharp look, eyes amused.
He would break formation to pull her from harms way, or lead a attack giving a courageous battle cry.
Now he lay on the battle heated ground, trembling from shock. Ashoka could feel his body's anguish, even with out directly concentrating on him in the force.
"Rex." her voice cracked slightly, eyes looking into his helmet visor, hoping that behind it he was alert enough to look back.
How had this happened to her Rex? Of all the brothers on the battlefield, Rex lay.
~~ Captain Rex: approximately 3 hours earlier
He had been running. General Skywalker had insisted for him to split up with the main group and take out the last of the droid forces with the young Commander Tano. She, "Needs the leadership experience."
That, she was doing quite well. In fact he and his men had hardly fired a shot. But that might have just been because she had ran ahead without them. The captain's legs ached from running, but he continued in pursuit of his energetic Commander. She wasn't even in sight now. His men let him lead, as always, running behind him silently.
Click.
He was suddenly falling. His arms flailed around disoriented. Men around him writhed into the air giving yells of surprise. It all seemed surreal, slow motion. Reality came back with a crack. Distantly he heard screams cut off or drawl into whimpers. Then it came back as loud as a detonator going off by his ear. Adrenaline flowed through Captain Rex's veins and he stood, took a wobbled step, and fell again. He faintly touched his left leg. It felt numbed.
"Call in!" he yelled hoarsely.
There was a moment of silence then a confirmation," Ruube here sir!"
"Coric." Rex heard his sergeant's voice farther off," I'm fine sir, just shaken up."
A dust bathed trooper raised on a knee near him," Jix here, I'm okay-" he stood and yelped,"..minus the ankle."
Rex carefully sat up and tensed his body to feel for injuries. Nothing felt broken. He muffled a gasp as he shifted to stand again.
"Coric.." he said through clenched teeth.
The medic's head popped into his vision hands ready with his medkit," What's wrong sir?"
Rex grimaced behind his helmet and placed a weary hand on his left knee," Think it's broken."
Coric eyes his hand," Well I'll have to take off that leg armor to check sir."
Rex shook his head quickly," We're still in dangerous territory. What do you think just happened? We were careless, now more then half of our squad is gone." the captain trailed off," We can't let our guard down."
Coric took a knee by him and searched through his medic pack,pulling out a crude amount of materials," It won't be a professional splint, but it'll do. I have to check if it's broken, and if it is, splint it with this sir. Here, I'll check over you and keep watch. Deal?"
Rex almost smiled at his sergeant's attempt at humor, Jix beat it to him though.
"Captain's not a youngling sir! We'll keep watch." Jix chuckled, flicking his wrist as he sent a chunk of earth at Coric's head.
The hardened piece of dirt made a muffled thud before falling onto the medic's shoulder. He brushed it away and stayed focused on Rex, waiting for his answer.
Rex hesitated," Deal. Ruuse, we need to contact Commander Tano."
"Communications still jammed?" Coric had already stripped the armor knee down from Rex's leg and was gently putting pressure down his captain's leg.
"I'll check-AHHG!" Rex jerked away from Coric's hands.
Coric paused and touched with more care to the spot Rex had balked at," Well you were right sir.. this sure is a break." he busied himself with wrapping the splint on Rex's leg.
Rex grimaced and blinked open his comm channel with his helmet.
Oh, it wasn't blocked.
"Well you don't have to run and find her Ruuse. Keep alert you two.." he activated his internal comlink.
"Commander Tano, this is Captain Rex. Please come in." he paused, waiting for a reply.
A sound of blaster fire and a whooshing of a lightsaber came to his ears and then her voice responded," Hey Rex! Where you guys at, your missing the party!" her voice chirped.
Rex winced again as Coric was setting a final touch on the splint. "We got blown up to put it in simple terms, Commander. There's only four of us left, and we're not in a condition to get to you."
Her voice wasn't as happy now," I'll finish up this group of tinnies and make my way to you immediately."
"Thank you Commander. We'll be waiting."
~~ Commander Ashoka Tano
Ashoka tried her comm again, the droids were still blocking signals. She glanced back down at the captain beside her. His shaking had ceased, and now his chest plate faintly rose and fell as he slept.
"I'm sorry I ran ahead Rex.." she whispered.
It was all her fault.
~~ Ashoka, somewhere on the battlefield
Ashoka ran back to where Rex could have possibly been. She almost tripped over white armored bodies. She bent next to the still forms, feeling in the force that they were gone and stiff. These must have been the casualties Rex had told her about. She let her eyes scan around her slowly. There was only the sound of wind as the sun fell silently from the sky.
"Rex!" she called out, listening for a response.
This was when her abilities in tracking would come in handy. She felt around in the force carefully. A sudden life form being snuffed from the force startled her. Like a cord had been cut. But then she felt grief. A thin wail made her jump again. She followed the noise instantly, something had to have made it. It ended suddenly, maybe it had been the wind..
No! Her nostril's flared at a sudden smell. The sharp metallic scent led her to scraps of droids and various shrapnel laying about. Blotches of red stained the ground. The dried blood led to another still trooper.
Shrapnel? she eyed the shards of metal gored into the man's back with a wince.
As she looked around again, she made a quick realization about the amount of metal around her. Lethal metal was sticking from droids as well as the ground. This had happened after the droids had been cut down. She searched hard in the force, a lump growing in her throat. That meant this clone had been recently killed, if the blood has not been covered by the ever moving sand yet.
She came to another perished clone trooper. This one she recognized, his armor personalized.
"Jix.." she sighed, wincing at the amount of shrapnel speared into him.
There! She felt something more prominent move in the force. She ran and nearly fell over another clone. A red crossed helmet lay to the side of his body, his messy black hair moving slightly in the wind. But she wasn't staring at the dead medic before her. Her eyes lay on Captain Rex, down, defeated, next to him. His arm still reaching for his dead comrade.
~~ Ashoka, later
Ashoka had buried the three men she had come across. Coric, Jix, and the trooper she didn't know the name of. She kept Coric's medpack. While Rex slept she numbed him with painkillers. It was time for her to do what she hadn't dared to do while he was conscious.
She started removing the slivers of metal from him. She wanted to wait to ask him before removing his armor to get the rest out. Particularly a larger shard dug deep into the side of his chest, near his armpit. The few words he had managed to say before passing out was a request for her to leave his helmet on. The other words were a mumble about the fallen medic.
Ashoka finished removing what she could. Her eyes trailed to Rex's leg. A splint was secured to it.
I'm so sorry Rex..
~~ Captain Rex, after comming Ashoka
Rex ended the signal and looked at his newly splinted leg.
"Good work Coric. The commander will be here when she finishes up the droids."
Jix looked around at the steep canyon walls," Can we find a place with cover sir? Whatever placed that mine is probably still out there.."
Rex looked around quickly," Looks like the Commander cut down that vulture droid over there," he motioned to a pile of black metal," That'll do."
Coric nodded in quick agreement and helped the injured captain up. Ruuse trailed behind with his blaster lowered as Jix limped ahead.
"I don't buy that the droids all went after Commander Tano.." Ruuse muttered.
"Their probably keeping a eye on us. That was probably their plan, to cripple us so we couldn't meet up with her." Coric let Rex lean on the scrapped vulture droid.
Rex grunted," We need to be on alert."
Ruuse walked from the newly created cover and looked across the heated ground," Think the general is doing okay?"
"Course he is. Kano and Jesse can shape up those rookies he's with." Jix sat with a thud.
"Yeah.. guess..your.." Ruuse trailed off.
"What?" Coric said absently as he fussed over Jix's ankle.
"Do you guys hear that?" Ruuse's helmet tilted slightly as he listened.
Rex paused and listened as well. There was a noise. A..beeping.
Jix rolled his ankle and moved toward Ruuse," Sounds like one of those clocks."
"Yeah-" Ruuse cut off as a explosion to his right, then directly in front of him.
Rex watched in horror as the clone fell, limbs twitching slightly.
"JIX!" Coric yelled, shoving from beside Rex.
Jix bolted towards them. Another explosion made the clone stumble and nearly fall. He recovered as another upheaval of earth sent him flying into the ground. He didn't move again. Coric skidded to a halt and wheeled around, bolting back to Rex. Rex gave a yell as another shrapnel mine exploded behind the veteran medic.
"SIR GET DOWN!" Coric dived under cover of the vulture droid.
Rex dragged him farther under the protective metal as another barrage of deadly metal flew around. Coric covered protectively over Rex, but it wasn't enough. Daggers sunk into the clone captain's flesh and he made a intelligible sound in the back of his throat. Searing pain in the areas where gaps in the protective armor could not cover. Coric gasped in agony as Rex only made a startled "Ah!" sound.
The noise of flying metal and explosions ceased. Only the ragged breathing of Coric came to Rex's senses.
"Coric!" Rex popped the seal of the medic's helmet and set it aside.
Coric's face was pained into a grimace. Rex gently laid him against the back wall of the makeshift droid shelter.
"M-morphine." Coric whispered, slowly moving his hand to his medkit on his hip.
Rex reached over and unclipped it from medick from the sergeant's belt with a wince," What do you need morphine for? You should use bacta first."
Coric coughed," Give your self a shot of bacta." he shakily held out a hand," Give me two morphine sharps."
Rex eyed the injured medic," You don't need two." Coric coughed raggedly again," Are you a medic Rex? Give me the damn morphine and take some bacta." Rex hesitated and handed Coric the two syringes of morphine. He quickly jabbed the bacta sharp into his arm.
"Why do you need two? You still need to patch both of us up.. that will slow your heart rate down too much.." Rex started examining his wounds, wincing as he noticed how deep most of them were, and now bleeding onto the ground.
"They're not for me sir." Coric swiftly jabbed both needles into Rex's shoulder, grunting at the sudden movement.
Rex jumped back in shock," Coric! What?"
The medic sadly smiled," I have to remove the shrapnel sir.. that amount will numb you enough."
Rex shook his head in dismay," But what about you?"
Coric was quiet," Don't worry about me. Lay on your back and stay still alright? Morphine will start working.."
Rex noticed the sergeant's eyes dulling. His wounds were worse for Force's sake. Rex obeyed him anyway, he was feeling a bit drowsy.. Coric touched a piece of metal embedding into his elbow and slowly started inching it out. Rex felt a small tug and a prick of pain as the sliver was removed from him.
"Sergeant.." Rex murmured, noticing the medic starting to sway as he worked over his captain.
"Sir.." Coric paused slightly and put a hand to his abdomen, eyes closed.
"It's okay.." Rex saw the shrapnel speared into his medic's side, even if he was trying to hide it from him.
Coric convulsed slightly and he coughed, splattering scarlet over his thigh plate. Rex put a hand on Coric's shoulder and gestured for him to lay down.
"It's okay Coric.. I'm fine.." Rex said quietly, sluggishly patting his brother on the arm.
"Your.. chest.. don't take out the one in your chest.." the medic's frame shuddered with another cough.
Rex mournfully looked at the man that had been with him since Geonosis. He had survived so long.. "I won't.."
Coric's head lay on the ground, breath unsteady," It's.. cold sir.. really cold.." he coughed again," Thought this place was a..desert."
"It is Coric.." the captain put a comforting hand on Coric's forearm.
"Didn't think it would be this way Cap'n." Coric's voice was quieter.
"What?" Rex's feelings were in turmoil.
Coric coughed again," Death.. sir.. white.. I.. I see.." he trailed off, eyes reopened and gazing at something almost in wonder.
Rex's eyes felt weighed down, his blood still running freely from various places over him. The morphine was doing it's job, but his wounds weren't healing at the drug's pace. Coric went limp, eyes closed again. For a moment Rex thought his sergeant was gone, but the man coughed in his state of unconsciousness.
"Hang in..there.. Coric.." Rex let his head hang back and blackness consumed him.
~~ Captain Rex, almost a hour later
Rex awoke, the sickening smell of blood filled his senses. He looked over at Coric. He was still, only faintly breathing, but still alive. Distantly Rex heard footsteps, but he dismissed it and continued watching Coric.
The sergeant's face flickered and then relaxed again. His whole body stilled. Realization hit Rex brutally. He gave a long, mournful cry and reached for his brother, mind still fogged from the morphine iced in his veins. His voiced cracked and he trailed into silence again. He head was spinning as many emotions and thoughts flashed across his mind. Just faintly Rex heard a small thud and sluggishly his eyes detected another form.
"Coric.. " he mumbled, feeling his lips hardly move at all, so it probably sounded like a babble of words.
The form knelt by him and tugged at his helmet. His heart jumped and he jerked, batting the prying arms away," Leave it!" his vision was blackening again.
"Alright Rex.. just stop moving.." he hardly heard the soft voice filled with fear. But before giving into the pull on unconsciousness, Rex obeyed the order like he had always been taught to do.
~~ Ashoka, after finding Rex
Ashoka wasn't very patient. But in the hours Rex lay still in a deep sleep, she stayed by his side. She was concerned about a few wounds that she very much wanted to apply aid to. Yet she wanted to ask Rex first. But what if he slept for a couple more hours… and it was too late? Ashoka shook her head at herself. She wasn't going to let that happen.
Lightly she unclipped his kama. It was heavier than she thought. Setting the leather blast skirt aside she pried off the thigh and hip armor on his right leg. Red oozed from the wound, but it appeared some first aid had been applied. Coric.. she thought absently.
Carefully, with aid of the Force, she removed the alarming piece of metal from the captain's leg. Blood pooled immediately and Ashoka applied pressure to stop the bleeding. Rex stiffened under her palms and made a choked grunt in the back of his throat. The padawan froze, feeling for Rex's emotions.
Just.. fear and lots of pain. A big hole of pain.
This troubled her. Rex wasn't once to announce if he had a injury, so his leg and wounds wasn't what the pain had come from. She wished she could see his face, though he masked his facial expression so well it didn't matter if he wore a helmet. The young togruta closed her eyes and prodded around Rex's frame using her abilities. Her brief time with Barriss Offee had been a learning experience. Barriss had showed her how to use the force to do field aid and mend wounds. Examining the body using the force was much easier and more effective then using the eyes.
She followed her senses up to his chest where she distinctly felt a disturbance in the captain. Her fingertips grazed a abrasion of metal. Her slight touch made Rex stiffen again. After a pregnant pause Ashoka gently gripped the shard in her fingers. It was slick with drying blood, but she started easing it out.
Rex made a small moan and his head tilted to the side as if he had passed out. But he was making a noise.. Ashoka leaned close and listened the the incoherent wheezing.
"H-he.. sa-said..", Rex's voice trembled, labored pants emitting from inside his helmet.
"I know it hurts Rex.. it'll be okay.." Force, Ashoka hated this. How did Barriss stand it?
The captain's head turned again, suddenly going silent but still squirming in pain. Ashoka suspected he had silence his outward comm. She continued to remove the last piece of shrapnel from the clone's chest. It was jagged, brutally sharp. The blood it was coated in a dark, almost black, red in color. She only examined it for a moment before throwing it aside and started patching up the bloody wound on her captain.
~~ Rex, after silencing his outward communications
He screamed. Not only in pain, but in grief, in anger. Coric was gone, nothing could have stopped it. Wrong! Rex held back a gasp as Ashoka pulled more on the metal Coric had told him not to touch.
I should have told her.. told Commander Tano to wait! Was it that hard for her to stay with her men- Rex corrected himself again. No.. you can't blame her. She did fine..
His eyes flicked to the metal Ashoka had removed as she tossed it away. Why had Coric told him to not touch it? With a flicker of blinks he reopened his comm.
"Commander.." he rasped.
The tiny commander immediately was in his vision," Yes Rex?" her face was anxious.
"Where.. is General Skywalker aware of.. what happened?" Rex had never felt so weak.
Ashoka's face looked troubled," Long range comms have been down since we've been here."
Rex just nodded and closed his eyes. Ashoka patted him gently and inched out from under the shelter of metal. The captain closed his eyes and gave into the needed sleep.
"Captain?" Coric was trapped under Rex's weight, arms pinned behind him.
"Yes sergeant?" Rex smirked at his victory. No one in the company could beat him when it came to sparring.
Coric squirmed a little," You win, come on get off!"
Rex laughed," Push me off! You've benched more then my weight.."
"Oh now your just being mean." Coric gestured with his head toward his disabled arms.
"Well this must be embarrassing."
"Aw get off Cap'n!" the sergeant complained.
Rex stood and hopped away a Coric lashed out with a leg to trip him up," Oh don't be a sore loser.."
Coric laughed and grinned at the on lookers," Who's next?"
"Captain?" Rex snapped to attention. Had he dozed off?
"Yes sir?" Rex focused onto a familiar face. His own in fact.
Commander Cody chuckled and straightened up," How do you do that?"
Rex tilted his head confused and removed his helmet, face puzzled," Do what sir?"
"Sleep standing up." Cody leaned on the wall by him.
Oh. Rex looked around quickly. He was in the medbay. "Wha. why am I in here?"
"Oh nothings wrong with you. You've been here with General Skywalker and Commander Tano."
"Oh yeah.." Rex remembered quickly Ashoka's distraught look as she sat by her master's bed. The general had gotten himself injured in one of his daring missions. Ashoka had been horrified on account of the fact that it was her negligence that gotten him hurt. Rex always felt he needed to be there for support if the padawan needed it. He must have fallen asleep.
"She's asleep too." Cody motioned to the dozing togruta splayed on chairs pulled together," You didn't respond to the debrief call and General Kenobi sent me down here to check on you.. I'll take the debrief for you if you want."
Commander Cody was a good man. Rex was happy to have the commander as his friend, his brother. "Thank you Cody.. I'll come though." Rex looked at Ashoka, then to the general in the medbed before following the commander to the war room.
~~ Ashoka, around midnight
Ashoka sat in the moonlit darkness knees drawn up to her chest. Her plea for extraction had once again been blocked. Guilt was eating her alive. She shouldn't have ran ahead.. shouldn't of left her men behind..
"Master.." she squeezed her eyes shut and tried finding him in the force. If she couldn't contact him over a commlink she could make him feel her distress in the force.
Please.. hear me Master..
~~ Captain Rex, near dawn
Rex felt suddenly blinded. He felt very short of breath but couldn't bring himself to gasp. What was going on? He tried to look around but saw darkness. The first thing he thought was he needed to take his helmet off. The air wasn't filtering from his helmet anymore and the oxygen was thickly scented like blood.
Instead of clawing the bucket off his hands were dead-weight at his sides. He faintly heard a whooshing noise.
Cold realization hit Rex, and he stopped attempting to move his arms. He couldn't move ANYTHING..
"Your going to be okay Rexy!" he registered a happy outburst dully.
Okay…? General.. the general must be here then.. Rex thought.
The bumble of voices faded and the captain felt cleaner air blow over his face.
"Blood...…Snips..." that was General Skywalker's voice! Rex struggled to open his eyes and failed. He could see light through his eyelids, so they had taken his helmet off.
Rex suddenly grew distracted by a white light. What was that? His subconscious told his he wasn't awake anymore. They had knocked him out. Rex hesitated before walking to the globe. It shrunk away before he could touch it and Rex frowned. Looking down he tilted his head as he realized his splint was gone, as if it had never been there. Where was he?
"Sir." Rex jumped and looked around in shock.
"Who said that?" he said warily.
There was just blackness around him, the white light taunting him to come closer. But that voice.. it.. sounded familiar. Granted it was his voice, but it wasn't at the same time…
"Who's there?" Rex said more firmly, straining his eyes for movement or a figure in the blackness.
There was a jolt and Rex almost fell to his hands and knees.
"Ah, their taking you back to the HQ." the voice mused.
Rex whipped his head around toward the sound of the speaker," What's happening?"
In shock Captain Rex watched a apparition form next to him. The armored figure sat on the ground in a almost bored-like posture," You lost too much blood. Your brain is dying." the clone tilted his face upwards to make eye contact with the shocked captain," I'm sorry."
~~ On a gunship heading back to the Republic headquarters
Anakin Skywalker had been nervous many times. Angry A LOT of times. But fear was something that only appeared in dire situations.
Looking upon his fallen captain was painful. The blood he had lost stained his padawan's hands and stilled flowed to the gunship's deck. His face was calm, Ashoka had cleaned away the blood that had dried around his mouth and chin.
His eyes fell on Ashoka, she was napping against the bulkhead. She had called to him using the force. He had felt it and panicked, sacrificing a couple men more then he had wished to get to her. Now they were returning to base. Now they would fix up Rex.
A part of him disagreed. Stop giving yourself false hope. You know as well as the medic that examined Rex on pickup they wouldn't make it in time. Even if you used the force to control bloodflow, the Rex was already in shock, already dying.
But Ashoka can't know that.. Anakin argued with himself, she's had enough for today.
That won't help Rex.
A snap in the force make Anakin whip his head toward Rex. The life cord of the man who he had been with throughout the Clone Wars was severed.
No no no..
"Rex!" Anakin looked away as Ashoka jerked awake.
Her blue eyes locked onto the still clone captain. Ashoka Tano began to cry.
~~ Captain Rex
There was a lot of things Rex wanted to say, but only managed a shaky," Who are you."
The figure stood and stretched," Ever heard about when people die they 'see a light'? Yeah, well.." the man gestured to the light that had been taunting him,", that part is true. Their life flashing before their eyes is bullshit though, sir."
"That didn't answer my question." Rex had his eyes glued onto the clone's.
The man gave him a funny look," Don't recognize me sir?"
Rex gave him a blank look and the clone sighed as if irritated," I'll give you a clue. Rishi outpost."
"Hevy?" Rex stiffened in alarm," But.. your.."
"Dead? Yeah. So are they." Hevy gestured to the light again.
Rex watched in awe as more figures appeared, all wearing armor, some helmeted, some not. "What.."
Hevy casually walked over to the ghostly ranks and saluted toward them before craning his neck behind him to look at Rex," Coming?"
"Where?" Rex was frozen, eyes flicking over the faces and armor markings of men that has perished under his command. Denal.. Koho.. Fly.. Breaker..
The light shined intensely, yet Rex wasn't blinded. The lines of men were stiff, at attention. The helmetless men's faces were peaceful, their eyes beckoning.
"Out, sir. Numbers have grown since I went through the same thing, but that's not your fault." Hevy joined the lines of clones and held himself at a salute. A familiar helmet turned to face him.
"All of us wait to greet our brothers sir. We'll wait to ease to journey from life, to death."
Rex's heart ached at Denal's words," Denal.." he paused, then looked over all the clone troopers," I'm sorry.. I failed all of you.."
A hand clasped on his shoulder pad and he turned to see who's ghostly fingers it was.
Coric's eyes were kind, his smile showing quiet amusement. Jix stood behind him, Ruube was not far behind, "You never failed us sir. We were all proud to serve under you."
Rex let his eyes fall closed," I didn't get to say.. goodbye." the light pulsed and seemed to grow.
"They'll understand." Hevy's voice faded as the light consumed his and the other men's silhouettes closest to the light.
Coric's eyes brightened," It's time to go sir."
Jix walked past the sergeant followed by Ruube. Others were walking back into the light, dissolving out of their ghostly self. Denal waited patiently as Coric walked Rex forward.
"It's okay sir.. you can let go." Denal comforted before disappearing into the whiteness.
"Rex..!" the captain faintly heard a panicked voice in the distance.
Coric started walking and paused, waiting. Rex exhaled and followed his sergeant into the light.
Captain Rex let go.