The ragtag army of rebels, the current count just under 200 people were crammed into the trenches.
"Okay, okay! You can let go of me now!" Lux shrugged out of Rex's grasp moments before they were hit by the cold of the outdoors. "That really wasn't necessa-"
There was a terrific boom overhead, and, absorbed in the battle overhead, Rex just shoved the younger man ahead.
It wasn't that Lux didn't know how to fight... he certainly did, and Rex had taught him both years and weeks ago. It was just that now, on the battlefield, the blaster in his hands suddenly felt very heavy, and his palms, even inside of the gloves, became very sweaty.
His body finally unfroze and he chased after Rex, trying to ignore the fact that the Empire was about to obliterate the entire rebel base with their walkers.
Lux, Rex, and Sashu regrouped just in time to see the first wave of Rebel snow speeders take to the skies. Remembering why Ahsoka had said, Lux wondered if she was one of them.
Most of the speeders didn't get far. With incredible accuracy, they were shot down by the Imperial walkers, even as their own shots did nothing.
Oh, God. Lux thought to himself, we don't stand a chance!
Rex must've noticed his defeated expression, because the man stopped shooting and ran over to him. "Do you know how to stop them?!" He bellowed, struggling to be heard over the noises of the battlefield.
"Just because I was once one of them doesn't mean I have all the answers!" C'mon, Lux! Think! You had to have read this somewhere.
While he was still pondering, he could hear Ahsoka's voice screaming at Rex through his comlink, asking Rex the same thing he was demanding of Lux.
Explosions were going off closer and closer to the groups position; the nearest turret went up in flames as the gunner was thrown off, dead before he hit the ground.
"The neck!" Lux's eyes opened with the epiphany and Rex quickly relayed the information to Ahsoka, whose comlink only broadcasted static. Everyone pretended not to notice.
The vanguard was ordered to advance: whether from Lux's help or not, the walkers were all mostly destroyed, and now only imperial ground troops remained.
They still had better weapons, though. Gunners with enough firepower to fell five men at once if they were close enough in vicinity.
Somehow, in the middle of the fray, Lux found himself separated from Rex and Sashu. It seemed impossible to lose a man that big, but in the thick of battle anything was possible, Lux supposed.
Ten yards in front of him, an explosion went off, and Lux high-tailed it back to the trenches, feeling that he was safer there.
The first time a trooper got close to him, Lux closed his eyes and fired, not wanting to think about the life he had just ended, the family he had just destroyed, the parents and siblings he had just devastated. You could say he became numb, and the next few enemies he encountered were shot dead with little thought.
Then, he couldn't fire fast enough. As he attempted to get his weapon unjammed,a blaster bolt whizzed near centimeters from his shoulder and into the snow next to him. Lux dropped instantly, breathing heavily with his back flat against the side of the trench. There was a few seconds of pregnant silence as Lux waited for that trooper to find him and shoot him, and he had a terrible feeling that the blaster wouldn't be set for stun like Iden's was.
He checked his own weapon: still jammed. If that trooper had the nerve to peek over the side to find him-
Lux didn't have the chance to consider what he would do as he never got the chance to do it. He heard muffled yelling and a few blaster shots, but ultimately, his would-be killer ended up lying on the snow next to him. Dead, as if he had been pushed in after his neck was snapped.
Even though it wasn't a far fall, and even though the dead man was the enemy, Lux still was bombarded with unwelcome flashbacks upon seeing the broken body of his friend Steela at the bottom of that cliff.
She hadn't died so that this war could happen.
Had he failed her?
A friendly red face appeared above Lux, interrupting his thoughts as Sashu waved meekly at him. "Hey, Lux."
Lux took a moment to gather his breath. "Hey, Sashu."
The Togruta offered a hand, and Lux took it and climbed out of the trench that he'd been cowering in for some time. If Sashu noticed what he had been doing, he didn't comment, and Lux patted him on the shoulder once he was onto a flat surface again.
"Where's Rex?" He asked his friend.
"On the ship." Sashu answered. "He got hurt, I had to carry him there because he wanted to fight more."
Sounds about right. Lux could imagine the scene.
"Where do we go now?"
Sashu looked around a minute, at the bodies, both Rebel and Imperial, that littered the snowy plain. At the sheets of metal and debris that poked up from the surface, some still with burning fires.
The only signs of life that were the few remaining snow speeders had landed so their pilots could prepare for transport on the last remaining shuttle.
"To the ship." His friend replied, and they began their trek across the snowy desert.
ooooooooooooooooooooooo
On the transport, in the middle of space, Ahsoka was hurrying from her transport in hopes of seeing her boys back alive and well.
Rex, okay except for a concussion, was under careful watch by Sashu. The medbay was too full to care for a "basic" injury like his, and as such the man was currently asleep slumped against a wall. The longer he slept, the longer Ahsoka would likely go without knowing Aidan's whereabouts. Knowing her son, he had probably become self appointed to the job of gunner as soon as their other men had been killed or injured. He'd probably be one of the last to file in.
Standing back up after checking on Rex, Ahsoka made eye contact with Lux as he waited a few steps away. Unusual, given the size of the crowd, Ahsoka pulled Lux into a hug.
"I knew we'd be okay." She whispered in his ear.
Lux shook his head, ashamed as he muttered something about being a coward.
"War can make even the bravest man a coward." Ahsoka supplied as the two separated. A selfish thought crossed Lux's mind when her warmth escaped his arms: where would they sleep if their base was destroyed? How would he and Ahsoka enjoy their stolen moments?
Ahsoka embraced him once more, quickly, then complained that he needed a shower before moving away as she zeroed in on the blonde haired figure of her son.
Noting her distraction, Lux risked a look through his peripheral vision in order to glance at who she was with. His breathing hitched and he suddenly found it hard to swallow when he got his first real look of his son.
Given the recent battle, Aidan looked and probably smelled worse than his father did, but under all those sweat streaks and blood stains Lux could just see the handsome, well defined face underneath.
Ahsoka and Aidan were exchanging a few words that he couldn't hear, and then he was forced to look away when Aidan began shooting him suspicious glances.
"Who is that guy, mom?" Aidan asked, speaking Togruti in a hushed tone.
"An old friend." His mother answered in a similar way. Inwardly, Ahsoka was panicking because she was almost a hundred percent sure that Lux understood Togruti.
Aidan's eyebrows furrowed when he inspected the mystery man again from afar. "I don't buy it. You don't hug old friends. You hardly even hug me."
"That's because you complain when I do." Ahsoka teased, hoping her son didn't realize her uneasiness, (he wasn't supposed to have seen her hug anyone, especially Lux), Ahsoka hastily wrapped up their conversation, promising to introduce him later.
"In the meantime." She begged."Please go and get your arm checked out."
There was dried blood on Aidan's bicep, the man glanced at it and shrugged. "Just some glass. I'm fine, mom."
"You won't be fine when tiny bits of glass shards make their way into your bloodstream!" She exaggerated, and gestured toward the medbay. Aidan grumbled something about "more imprtant injuries" but complied, shoving the random friend of his mother's out of his way when he walked. Lux watched him leave.
"He's a real charmer." Sashu huffed in Togruti. Both Lux and Ahsoka stared at him. They'd forgotten he was sitting there, too, and he didn't know the context of the family drama.
"Let me know when Rex wakes up, Sashu." Ahsoka told their friend. "Lux and I are gonna go get some food."
Lux wasn't sure if that was code or not. He was too tired to care. He just wanted to shower and sleep. Ahsoka must've known this, because she walked them straight to a wing dedicated to barracks and whatnot, magically obtained and tossed Lux a towel, shampoo and a razor and told him he had ten minutes to meet her in the mess hall.
I never knew snow could be so dirty.Lux thought as he stripped and then stepped under the cool current. It wasn't warm, but the water was still warmer than Hoth's tropical temperature and he couldn't complain. A surprising amount of dirt mingled with all the sweat he had generated in those few short minutes before it all was sent down the drain.
A hall an a half away, Ahsoka finished with her own shower in two minutes and then sat wondering how she and Lux were gonna sort out this mess. Aidan needed to know: imagine if one of them had gotten hurt and left the other two to figure the rest of their lives out?
No. This whole facade needed to end... Preferrably with all three of them able to talk it out.
"Just let me talk to him." Lux tried later during a meal, unaware of just how foolish that sounded. "I just need a few weeks to earn trust, then we can decide how to move forward."
"That wouldn't work." Ahsoka said, already shaking her head. "Aidan has a habit of reading people- he'd figure it out in a matter of minutes."
"And say he does." Lux went along with her scenario. "It'll all be about trust and building a relationship. That's how this stuff works, I suppose."
"This would be so much easier if he was still a kid." Ahsoka huffed, stabbing wearily at her meal.
"Well I, for one, am surprised he hasn't discovered us yet." Lux commented as he took a bite of what appeared to be meat.
"Why? I told you, I'm good at keeping secrets, even if that secret is the fact we're sleeping together." Ahsoka enjoyed how Lux flushed up with embarrassment and caution at those words.
"What?" She hid her smile by taking a drink. "I've told you that Aidan isn't blessed with force powers. And, you'd be surprised at how many people have not-so-secret relationships around here."
Lux shook his head in an effort to stop thinking about that. "Anyways, about Aidan..."
"I think I need to be the one to tell him." Ahsoka said.
"No."Lux protested."You said it yourself, he may become angry and attack. Serves me right if he does."
"Yes, Lux. I hear you the other nineteen times you've said that! And no, you don't deserve what Aidan will do to you. Don't forget, it was I who decided not to brave the circumstances to tell you. Remember all those comlink calls we had while I was actually pregnant? I could've told you then, and I chose not to."
Lux's aging mind had a difficult time recalling that, but once he did, he chose not to become angry. "You did what you thought was best at the time."
"And I was wrong." Ahsoka set her eating utensils down, finished eating."And I leave us to clean up the mess later."
"A mess I would gladly pick up." Lux assured her. "Now... Should we go check on Aidan and Rex?"
"As long as you don't spoil anything." She insisted. Little did he know, she planned on doing it anyway.
"My lips are sealed."
oooooooooooooo
Author's note:
Hey guys! School's officially out now, and I have summer to write and improve my skills in English!!! School also finished in time for the real Luxoka to begin ;).
I would like to promise that updates will be Friday, however I do have a major surgery coming up and I don't react to anesthesia well so I may skip a week after the procedure.
Also, for no particular reason whatsoever, leave a review "girl" or "boy" (okay fine, you can have a hint- it's Luxoka related, in case you haven't inferred.)
Or just... Review, because I like to know that you guys are enjoying it!!!!!
Looking forward to what you guys will have to say and may the force be with you,
Dinui