Gavyn entered the temporary hospital area covered in blood. He had a clone trooper cradled in his arms, leaving a red trail behind them. The doctors quickly directed him to an empty table, where they got straight to work, trying to pull the shattered remains of the armor out of the clone's chest.
Pulling off his outer robe, it was clear that most of the blood Gavyn was soaked in was not his own. That wasn't to say the battle was not bloody. After meeting up with reinforcements at the quarry, they had marched on the landing ships. The ships were heavily fortified, and the ground troops hardly stood a chance. At dawn, Gavyn called a retreat so they could re-group and assess a new strategy. They had lost a lot of good soldiers in the battlefield, and unlike the Separatists, Gavyn did not intend on winning this battle through sheer number of expendable troops.
A nurse attempted to hand Gavyn a blanket, but he waved it away. He didn't need to be taken care of, the flood of wounded needed to be taken care of. In fact, there were likely more wounded than could be dealt with by the doctors. The clones able to be transported were already being moved to shuttles to the medical facilities on the star cruiser. Concern stirred in Gavyn, if they were going to be understaffed, was Tyro already taken care of?
Gavyn paced the corridor lined with resting patients. Some of them had major surgeries to recover from, but there simply was no room in the base for patient privacy. It was easy to spot Tyro against the identical clones. Gavyn hurried to his side, but a something caught his robe as he moved past.
Gavyn turned to see Dice, one of the first clones he had met. Dice was a commander that had been trained with Ace, and Gavyn had spent many hours with Ace and his classmates during the war.
"General… sir." Dice sputtered out. His abdomen and left neck were wrapped in layers of gauze, and Gavyn could see the effort it took to move at all.
Gavyn knelt next to the clone's bed. "Dice." He smiled wryly. "How are you holding up?"
"I've seen better days." He offered before coughing. The cough made the clone moan in agony. Gavyn quickly took Dice's hand and held it tight, relieving some of the burden of pain through the force. "I always told Ace I'd get it before him…"
"That isn't going to be today." Gavyn insisted, looking into Dice's eyes with a fierce blue gaze. He put a hand on Dice's bandages, and Gavyn could immediately feel the trouble. There was still a fragment of shrapnel lodged inside of him, after they had closed him up. It was slate - something the scanner would not have picked up. Gavyn's head started swimming, as he called on the force. Slowly, he shifted the rock away from the vital organs. It shot pain through Dice, but Gavyn took the weight of it through the force. He grimaced, feeling Dice's pain as though it was his own. He could feel the force flow freely through his friend now. He was going to be okay until they could remove the additional shrapnel safely, and without the current overwhelming number of patients.
When Gavyn opened his eyes, there was a tear streaked down Dice's face. "Thank you…" He was breathing easier now. "Oh thank the force." He released a shuddered breath of gratitude. "I can fight another day."
"You can live another day." Gavyn corrected with a kind smile. He slowly stood up, nodded his head towards Dice, and turned back to his Padawan.
Slowly, he knelt beside Tyro. The doctors had done a good job dressing his wounds, but part of Gavyn still felt guilty for leaving him in the care of strangers. Still felt guilty for taking him into battle in the first place. Guilty for nearly getting him killed.
Tyro awoke cold and shivering despite the blanket he was wrapped in. There was the strange sensation of being in pain but not really, like it was half shielded away from him. Instinctively he reached out for something...the force. Yeah, that was it. He extended himself, grasping for its calm reassuring presence to focus his mind and center himself. There was nothing. Nothing but an empty void. This had never happened before. Never, in as long as he could remember had he not felt the force. What was happening? He started to panic. Whatever they had given him before was wearing off. It was an uncomfortable feeling, but probably a good thing he figured. It would be better to control this through the force, and not whatever drugs they were giving him.
Maybe this was a good thing, he figured, as the reality of where he was set in. He wasn't sure he would have had enough control over the force to block out all the pain of those around him. He rolled to his side and promptly threw up. There was no half masking the pain after that. Groaning, he curled around his bandaged stomach, realizing that moving was probably not the best for it right now.
It was only after several panting breaths that he noticed someone's hand on his back. Gingerly rolling back over he met the worried eyes of Gavyn. He hadn't even sensed him through the force. He felt ashamed, letting the man see him like this. They hardly knew each other. "I'm sorry," he croaked.
"No," Gavyn insisted. "I am sorry." He hung his head, hair falling across his blood streaked face. "I should not have brought you into battle so soon. I should have taught you slowly, so you would be ready. This should never have happened."
Gavyn was so accustomed with working with clones, each one of them came with standard training. They were born and bred to fight. They knew how to work together. They had run hundreds of simulations to practice dealing with being under fire. They had good judgement when it came to engaging enemies, although Gavyn often worried that they were so conditioned to to throw their lives away in the name of following orders.
Tyro was a completely different case, and Gavyn had forgotten that. In school, Jedi were trained in combat, but much of the training was for lightsaber duels, which were nearly unheard of. The skills were primarily useful against vibro-blades. Beyond that, the focus was on small, strike team style maneuvers, not large-scale battles. This was new territory for Jedi, and Tyro's previous master had been almost entirely academic.
Gavyn sat on the edge of the cot, and patted Tyro's arm gently. The poor kid had just been sick. Gavyn could feel the force throbbing with pain through him. The least he could do for him now was just be there for a while.
"'s not your fault." Tyro protested as best he could, staring at the ceiling. He appreciated Gavyn's comforting presence, it was something he would have never thought of the guy before. He relaxed slightly, but there were more important things that needed to be said. "My actions...were my own. Did what I thought was right...wasn't. Thought I was helping, but I wasn't there when you needed me later." Tyro's eyes flicked to the blood on Gavyn's face. "I distracted you."
Tyro had no problem taking injury if it meant saving someone else but the pieces were starting to fall into place. He had been short-sighted, only thought of the present danger, not the greater good. It was impulsive; not the jedi way. As if it might give him a reason to not say what he had been considering next, he reached out for the force one last time. Nothing. He was officially useless. "I understand if... this's not what you were looking for in an apprentice."
"No, it's not." Gavyn said quietly, but as a matter of fact. "But you will learn, Tyro." He assured. It was a harsh truth, but Gavyn remembered how clearly his own master had set down expectations. He always knew what the model was, the goal to strive for. As a young Padawan he had worked so hard to live up to that expectation, but he had learned in time that his former master was still on that same journey. Reaching infallibility was a goal to be reached, but the act of trying every moment is what was important.
Gavyn didn't know what kind of principals to live by Tyro's former master had taught him, but that training could be leading him down the wrong path.
"I trust you, more than anyone, not to act so recklessly again." Gavyn said, looking Tyro in the eye.
"Yea...For the record I don't usually need this much encouragement to figure this stuff out," sighed Tyro, shifting uncomfortably. It didn't sound like Gavyn was angry however or like he had given up on him. That was good of him. He looked away after that though, Gavyn didn't know just how much encouragement he had.
He closed his eyes tightly trying to center himself without the force past the haze of pain before realizing how sarcastic he had sounded. Gavyn had been nothing but nice to him. "I mean...I pick up stuff fast...that's what I meant...It was reckless...I get it, I get why...I just wanted to...I didn't want people to get hurt...to die. I see now how that was short sighted but I could feel their pain and I knew I could do something to stop it...and it felt like it would be selfish not to because how could I just let them die when there was still something left I could do and I know that's not good in the long run because I can't help others if I do that and I get it now and I know I overdid it and well I probably couldn't even do it again if I wanted to because I can't..." he hiccuped a sharp breath "I can't even use the force anymore..." he wanted to cry but he just didn't have the strength. Instead he looked up to Gavyn desperately, panting for breath.
Gavyn's eyebrows knit together for a moment, empathizing with Tyro's concern. However, there was nothing to be concerned about, you couldn't just have the Force knocked out of you by a few injuries. He brushed the hair from Tyro's face. It was usually so full of energy, sticking up on end, the juxtaposition of it hanging limply seemed even more drastic. "The Force has not abandoned you, Tyro. You are exhausted." he said simply. "Just because you can lift things without touching them doesn't mean you are not using your body. You will feel better after you get some sleep and heal up."
A blinking green light on Gavyn's forearm indicated that Ace was trying to reach him. They needed to go over some plans for the next assault on the landers before the Separatists could retake the quarry. Gavyn wished he had a better idea of what they could do. He didn't want to be up all night planning, and walk into battle without an hour's rest. "I need to go. Ace and I need to discuss tomorrow's attack. We don't have much time, and those landers were heavily fortified." He sighed. "We were hoping we could take it with the extra ground troops, but it was…" a massacre. "more than we expected." Gavyn stood up, and he suddenly felt the ache of the bruises on his back. Even sitting still for a few moments made his muscles stiff.
"No!" Tyro grabbed a handful of Gavyn's robes before he even realized what he was doing. "Don't go…" he mumbled. Don't leave felt stupid at his selfishness even as he said it. He didn't want to be left alone again at the mercy of the doctors and nurses. He didn't want to be alone and in pain he could not control. He couldn't fall asleep if he wanted to, everything hurt too much.
Gavyn turned and knelt back down next to Tyro. He could feel the fear and pain in his apprentice.
It didn't take much though for Tyro to see Gavyn looked tired, he looked like he was in pain. How long had he been awake? The battle sounded like it had gone horribly, and Gavyn was about to go out there just to repeat it all over again? Then it kinda clicked. "Wait...you marched on a lander? Why not just take it out from the inside? Kinda like those tanks we took down. Their systems were garbage, I hacked their communications and piloted that thing at the same time."
Gavyn's eyes widened at the possibility. If they could breach inside, and get control of the defense systems, destroying it would be easy. Of course, inside would be teaming with droids, but machines could be hacked, if Tyro was right about this. There were still very large potential problems he foresaw in the plan, however. Details to arrange.
"Hmm, their systems are not entirely garbage, and the lander is going to be even more complex. A clone trooper, or even a clone commander would not have been able to get control of a tank beyond piloting it. And those computers are way beyond my skill.." Gavyn admitted. Tyro was exceptionally talented with computers, what he thought was simple would be a great challenge to most other people.
Gavyn knew that Tyro would want to help, but he couldn't bring himself to suggest it. Tyro was still weak and exhausted, and Gavyn was not comfortable bringing him back into harms way. Tyro wouldn't last more than a few minutes, it simply wasn't an option to take him out to the field.
"Well then I would do it," Tyro stated, obviously. Gavyn was already giving him a strong look that was impossible to interpret as anything other than "no". Just even having something like this to think though about was already making Tyro feel better. "I mean not physically, like hack it remotely, or like tell you...or er...whoever is good on your team what to do. Like get me a holocom and whatever of their tech you can scrounge up and I'll figure it out," he finished with the most excited smile his waning strength would allow. The nurse across the room seemed to be watching him, looking like she was making ready to pounce, but he kept his focus on Gavyn. "So, what do you say?"
Something about the life in Tyro's eyes at this prospect of helping out warmed Gavyn. As long as Tyro was here, in the hospital and safe, this might not be such a bad idea. A small group could sneak inside- perhaps inside one of those tanks- and Tyro could help them hack the computers from his bed, miles away. He couldn't say no to a plan like that.
"Alright." Gavyn conceded. Before Tyro could get too excited he cut in. "I still need to talk to Ace about what the plan will be. In the meantime, you need to get some rest." He pulled up the bedsheet as he stood up to make his point. "We'll brief you when you wake up." He assured his apprentice.
Gavyn hoped that the new sense of purpose would keep Tyro company in his stead, since he still had a lot to attend to. He watched Tyro's expression carefully, not wanting to abandon him while he was still fearful.
"Um hmm," Tyro nodded, already knowing it was a lie, the last of the determined smile slipping from his lips. His body was more exhausted than he could ever remember it being before, like a dead weight dragging him down, but without the force to meditate in it was either keep his mind active or have nothing to focus on but pain, neither of which was very restful. I'd fall asleep eventually he consoled himself, no stranger to wakeful nights of planning.
The sentiment lasted less than a second. Seeing the General finish his conversation the nurse was making a beeline towards him, equipped with a tray of things he probably didn't want to think about. Remembering the pain from earlier, any semblance of selflessness escaped his mind. Without the force to comfort him he wasn't feeling like much of a Jedi at all. "Master," he whimpered.
"I'm right here, Tyro." Gavyn eased, calling on the Force as he said the words, reaching out to Tyro. Just because he was too tired to manipulate the force, didn't mean he was unaware of it. He filled the trembling fear Tyro was feeling with tranquility, as he took Tyro's good hand.
It was clear to Gavyn that his Padawan was not going to rest easily in this crowded corridor. He was raised in the temple, surrounded by tranquility and privacy. The clones were accustomed to being crowded, and under stress. And if Tyro was going to be instrumental in their next course of action, he was going to need to be well rested.
There was nearly no room next to Tyro on the narrow cot. "Scoot a bit." Gavyn asked, as he gently lifted Tyro's head, and lay it on his lap. He sighed, surprised how nice it was to sit comfortably, with his back against the wall.
Tyro was breathing weakly. He didn't have the control he needed to use the Force to speed his healing. Gavyn offered his own living force to contribute. The bond between Master and Padawan was strong, and between them the Force beat as one. Gavyn closes his eyes, lost in the drifting energy between them, as they gradually slipped away into sleep.
