Revised May 18, 2016. Thank you, CheckSix for taking the time to write such detailed reviews. You are most generous with your time and as I've said many times in the past, this story would not be what it is today, without the generous feedback from readers. This story shall forever be a living document.
Also corrected some word duplication / jumbled sentences. As I said, these errors are all mine and I take responsibility for them. If you've read my profile, you'll know I suffer from severe migraines and while I'd like to say these do not mess with my head, unfortunately, they do. In a big way. I'll continue to try to weed out these brain glitches. Bear with me.
The third and most important change involves the evolution of the relationship between Ahsoka and Rex. It has now been seven years since I started the story. The more I re-think the story and these two characters, the less I want this story to read like two kids who meet in high school and keep wondering: "Gee. I like this girl. Does she like me?" And, "Golly, gee whiz, that boy is so cute. Why doesn't he notice me?" Instead it is more of an impossible love story set against a backdrop of war. So you may still have some chapters in the old style and some in the new style. Again, this is a living document. I try to always mark chapters when they have been revised.
"Whatever Happened to Captain Rex?"
Chapter Three
Rex looked down at his blaster and then quickly to his belt for a recharge pack. His hand came up empty.
Fek.
How long had they been at this already?
His gaze darted toward his second blaster and the rifle; one dropped when he'd been hit and the other shot out of his hands. Both were out of reach. He ejected his vibroblade, temporarily soothed by the solid 'schunk' and motion of it as he wielded it.
Now, to stand up.
Pushing to his feet almost made him pass out. He grabbed the rock for support and forced himself to stay upright by sheer force of will. He positioned himself between Ahsoka and the advancing droids.
Ahsoka gritted her teeth in annoyance at his unnecessary over-protectiveness. When is Rex going to stop treating me like a kid?
In typical fashion, the droids stopped firing as they repositioned themselves to circle around their quarry. They started closing in, tightening their circle.
"Die, Republic dogs," the lead B-1 announced stepping forward.
Rex neatly took off the head of the B-1 with a single blast and further angled himself so he was blocking Ahsoka even more fully from the impending rounds of destruction. She heard him grunt with pain from the movement. The clearing echoed with the sounds of weapons cocking and charging up.
No!
Ahsoka knew what she needed to do.
But, this was not about saving herself.
She leaned in behind Rex, sheathed her dual light sabers, and assumed a meditative pose. As she closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, she became fully aware of every sound and smell. The tang of sweat coming off of Rex. His labored breathing. The slight whirring of the circuits and servos which powered the droids. Her own heartbeat.
She had been raised to protect others, and that included Rex. But somehow, her bond to him was different than the others, and for this moment, she called upon the strength of that bond.
The Force sang in response.
Energy surged.
But, would it be enough?
Ahsoka had seen her Master do amazing things with the Force, some of them extraordinarily powerful and maybe she could-
The energy surged again, but the gentle song was now roaring chaos. It was frightening, even to Ahsoka, and she was not sure if she could control what she had unwittingly created. She struggled to contain the growing tidal wave of Force energy knowing it must be released before it consumed everyone and everything around her.
The Jedi padawan lifted her arms and the droids rose in the air just as they began to fire. In their circular formation, they directly caught each other in a massive cross of friendly fire. Shrapnel flew, headed toward them in a deadly hailstorm of metal fragments and sparks.
Ahsoka threw her arms forward, her skin scraping up against Rex's armor. The droids were hit with a violent Force push, the likes of which Ahsoka had never unleashed before. The energy wave hit the line of droids like a violent landslide. With their energy weapons still discharging, the effects were catastrophic. The final push ended the droids, creating a chain-reaction explosion.
A wall of flame surged toward the two Republic officers.
"Down!" Ahsoka yelled. (Although, even as she did, she knew she would hear about it later from Rex. He had already ducked and was trying to pull her down to take cover.)
She dodged Rex's efforts to throw her under him and use himself as a human shield against what would be a fatal hailstorm of metal, even with his armor. With palms outstretched, she drew up a Force shield over them.
Time seemed to stand still as fragments pelted down over them.
Can't hold it...
Ahsoka's inner defense's weakened.
Exhaustion made her arms tremble to the point she felt her very limbs shaking.
Metallic shards continued to rain down against the shield in a deadly hail.
No, no, no.
Please.
She called upon the Force, begging for a little more strength to finish the task she had begun. She received a small answering surge but knew she would pay for it later in exhaustion. In what seemed like an eternity, but was likely only seconds, everything finally grew silent.
Her shield immediately crumbled.
She was sure she would never be able to raise another.
Or, ever move again.
"Commander? Commander Tano?" Rex's voice finally roused her from her stupor. "Are you alright?"
His voice gravelly and halting. Yet, the stupid bantha was asking about her. Raising her head, she took in the sight of her captain and could see he was not in a good way. Adrenaline flooded her system, giving strength where there had been only exhaustion.
"You're not," Ahsoka countered.
Rex ignored the comment. "We need to find better cover." It was obvious he was trying to put on a brave front. "And, we need to meet the others at the RV Point in-"
His strength suddenly flagged, and his good leg buckled. Ahsoka grabbed him, holding him up before he completely collapsed.
She gave him a second to compose himself, knowing Rex and how hard this was on him. He took several deep bracing breaths.
"Rex," she ventured carefully with a glance down at his injured, bleeding leg, "we need to-"
"I'm fine," Rex said, refusing to even look at his leg. "We should move out. There could be more of them coming from that factory."
And, they both knew the first part was a complete lie. He was anything but fine. His voice was so rough it made Ahsoka uncomfortable to hear it. "Commander, if you could help gather my kit, we can move out." He nodded toward his fallen twin blasters and dropped bucket. She knew he was trying to change the subject. The fact he'd been disarmed was worrisome enough and said volumes about the severity of his injuries. She gathered up the fallen items. He nodded his thanks, but refused to make direct eye contact. Instead, he focused his attention on quickly inspecting the gear to ensure it was still usable.
Ahsoka could see Rex was trying to mask his pain. She glanced around the battlefield area. There was no decent cover. They had no choice but to move on.
Rex holstered one blaster, and kept the other drawn and ready. His rifle he used as an impromptu crutch. Ahsoka supported him on the other side. As soon as Rex tried to swing his injured leg forward, he hissed out in pain and doubled over. Now that Ahsoka was in physical contact with the clone captain, she could feel the pulsing hot waves of agony from broken bone, ripped muscles, and torn cartilage. He slowly straightened up, his breathing ragged. "Just need... a micro-sec, Comm... ander."
She'd seen Rex injured in battle before, but it had never been just the two of them like this. Kix or Coric was always there to handle serious injuries. "Hold up. I agree the cover isn't good, but I need to take a look at you before we move out." She struggled to inject calm into her voice.
Rex hesitated before giving a weary nod of resignation. She eased him down as gently as she could back to a sitting position on the rock, trying not to jostle his leg at all. Once he was settled, Rex twisted his upper body to look all around them. "The droids?"
Ahsoka reached out with her Force senses, "We're OK for the moment. I'm not sensing anything in the immediate vicinity."
"We need to move out," Rex insisted.
She placed a hand on Rex's armored chest, trying to reason with him. "You're bleeding out, Rex."
Rex stared down at his leg as if her words were finally registering, then relented with an exasperated sigh. He scowled down at his injury, before leaning in to start unhooking armor plates.
"Gah!"
He let out a long stream of curses as he began maneuvering the plate, and had to stop. Ahsoka placed her hands over his, blood streaming freely over both of their hands. She tried to ignore the sensation of his blood pooling over both of their hands. "Let me help."
Rex blew out a frustrated breath and finally relented.
Ahsoka started by undoing the gription plates higher up on Rex's leg, taking them off with great care. She removed his cuisses and greaves, saving the poleyn for last. All of his leg armor was either cracked or shattered. Ahsoka felt a pang of regret, knowing the care Rex lavished on his armor, and how much it meant to him.
She held up the ruined cuisses and graves. "Sorry, Rex."
Rex wouldn't even look at the plates or take them from her hand. He sat up ramrod straight, keeping his eyes fixed on the surrounding forest.
He snorted.
Ahsoka hesitated before removing the poleyn, both because she knew moving the piece would hurt him and she wasn't sure about his derisive snort.
"What?" she asked.
"That's rich coming from someone who refuses to wear armor," he glanced down toward her complete lack of protective clothing. It was an old argument between them.
And, a sign he was in a great deal of pain.
It worried her more than anything. Rex only ever snapped at her when she put herself in danger, (which was often, admittedly), or when he was injured to the point his temper flared.
She shook her head and let the comment go.
Rex didn't mean to be such a pain in the Rancor's backside.
And, she still had to remove his poleyn which was covering the site of the injury. She put her hands over the offending piece of armor. He tensed up and his breathing came out as a ragged gasp.
"I'm sorry," she looked into his eyes and noticed all the adrenaline flooding his system had caused his eyes to dilate.
"Go on," Rex said, his voice harsh and tight as he struggled to maintain control. He closed his eyes and took deep steady breaths. "The leg is fractured," Rex stated with the grim certainty that came from battlefield experience, "two fractures, more likely... gah!" His fists clenched with agony, and he went eerily silent as she pulled the poleyn away.
She risked a quick glance at him. He was an unhealthy shade of white for a clone. She shoved the shattered poleyn into his hands, knowing he'd want to see it.
"They're field-testing the new rounds," Rex's voice was grim. It was the same tone he used when he sent men out to the field and knew many of the would likely not return.
She dug into her backpack for a lumen. "I need to open up your suit." She reached her fingers down to just above his knee and took a deep breath. Her fingers trembled, and she hesitated.
"Do it," Rex said, his voice sounding worse as the minutes passed, "or I will."
Ahsoka took a deep breath and pulled the hook and latch enclosure apart before she lost her soon as she was done, she began to talk the clone through the next steps of what she was doing. "I'm going to give you a stim and a painkiller. Could sting a bit."
Rex snorted in response.
She glanced up at him. Annoyed at his derision, once again. "What?"
"Not sure it could hurt much worse, Commander." He had a bemused gesture on his pale face. "Have... at it. Sting a bit."
She smiled, glad she could amuse him despite all of his pain. And, knowing that despite everything, he was... still Rex. And, gah, so reassuring and exactly what she needed.
"Thank you," she said, glancing up and giving him all the smile she could muster.
"For what?" his brows knitted with puzzlement. "I got shot." His expression and tone made it clear this was some sort of failing in his duty on his part to be injured.
She was not going to argue with him now and ruin whatever slight good moment they'd enjoyed. She quickly changed the subject. "Painkiller. Stim." She did the injections quickly, exactly as she'd been taught by Coric. His eyes started to dull over quickly. "That's my second sharp of painkiller. Two's the-"
"-limit. I know, Rex. Both you and Coric have explained this countless times."
More than two sharps damage to the liver, kidney or brain. Three sharps was a sure way to a fatal overdose. If you timed the sharps too closely together, you could give yourself a narcotic hangover.
Rex shrugged, "I'm nothing if not thorough-" he cut off when Ahsoka peeled back the synth-flesh patches over the wound.
His fists clenched, digging into the dirt.
Performing emergency field medicine on anyone was difficult. A fellow Jedi. Her master. One of the clones in her care. But, for Rex, one of her closest friends, it presented a new level of difficulty. Maybe this was what they meant about attachments.
She focused her attention completely on the knee injury. The round had gone completely through his knee, taking much of the cartilage of the kneecap with it. Rex was right about the fractures. Ahsoka knew from her classes at the Academy he'd gotten lucky. The knee doesn't have a good blood supply or her captain would have bled out already.
"Rex hold still..."
His entire body swayed.
He made an inarticulate sound before he slumped forward. Ahsoka dropped the bandages she was holding and made an awkward grab for him.
But she was too late.
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