Kashyyk sucked. Plain and simple it sucked. If the fight wasn't in the mountains or coasts and in the forest it sucked even more so they tried staying out of there when they could. It was their third full rotation when a familiar wail reached Ahsoka's montrals
"Chewbacca?" she asked turning to find said Wookie and gave him a gentle hug "Hello again old friend." she greeted. Yes the wookies were great fighters, and yes they understood basic but most of the clones didn't understand wookie. Which, had its problems, of course, hand signs kind of helped but not much. Kashyyk sucked. Ahsoka could agree to that, it was too humid, there was too much pressure in the air from the atmosphere.
Another battle, this time on the shores, coverage was spotty at best, they'd split into groups, Anakin on one side, Ahsoka on the other, and Rex coming up the middle. The separatists had been launching shells, which made progress slow. Too many too close blasts, raining sand down on them making them duck.
It was hours until it seemed like they were close to the end of this battle, overcoming the droids by sheer force of will and reaching their compound, but man they were still trying. Ahsoka ran towards one of the tanks launching shells, it fired off one, two, towards the troops before she slashed the barrel with her saber and ran it down the body of the machine.
She continued until one shell, whizzing past her with heat so hot she thought her skin would burn, and landed in their ranks of clones had her turning. Into the middle of her men, it landed and she winced, then froze, no longer was she worried about the tank near her. She felt the pain come off from that direction like a wall and the air in her lungs was gone, it was a while before she remembered how to breathe.
"Rex…" it was a broken whisper, he coms were on, they'd been able to wire them into her headband, which meant Anakin heard her.
"Shit, Kix we need a medic now. Rex is down," he said and she ran back, back through the droids, slicing them as they came, back through the path she pushed, back through the men and the droids firing at one another, back to the crater in the ground, locked in her sights.
"Rex…" it wasn't any louder yet somehow she thought that'd be enough to get him to answer. "R-rex…" she tried again louder now as she skidded down unto the sand of the crater. Scanning in it for the helmet she knew so well. The Jaig eyes she'd done, he messed up one but of course, she liked neither of them and repainted both, where was he? She crawled back out of the crater searching around it and her eyes hit home, she took off, sabers long since clipped, ignoring the chatter from the coms, somewhere far off Anakin was trying to ask her something, she didn't care. Jaig eyes, as blue as her striped chevrons, on the ground, head at a slight angle.
"Rex…" it was desperate as she skidded through the sand and was at his side, her hands were traveling over his armor, searching, searching for whatever it was that she needed, her hands reaching out through the force accessing the damage, her hands gripping and tugging off the bucket.
"Rex!" she tried, louder, more desperate.
"Ahsoka Kix and the others are coming just hang tight," it was Anakin, she didn't answer.
She checked his pulse, there but weak, his breathing was strained. His face was bloody, maybe one of the interior displays shattered on impact. Her hands were over his chest armor again, she knew how to unclip it by now, she'd done it enough times though in quite different circumstances, his chest plate unsnapped and she got the front and the pauldron off him. Her hand scanning again with the force.
"He's got a lot of bleeding…" she finally spoke her hands sprawling over his abdomen pushing with the force to stop it. "His ribs…" she whimpered as she tried her best to stop it, to heal the damage. Tried to calm the shaking of her hands, of her body. The tremors of blasts around her causing her to jump slightly. Each breath was ragged, broken, a tortured whimper.
"His.. face.." she tried she knew they wanted to know what the medic team was about to walk into, they wanted some sort of info, but she couldn't choke out more than a few words at a time. Ragged breathing, broken shaky breaths, and tortured whimpers made up the majority of her vocalizations.
"Focus on him Ahsoka, stats when the medics have him stable." Anakin's voice was like a vice, the only thing grounding her. Because of course, he knew, he could feel the fear and pain coming off her, knew she was trying to keep it together, barely was holding herself together, having her tell them what was happening with the person she loved, it would not help her, she didn't need to vocalize how bad he was.
Her eyes had long spilled over tears as she continued to heal, or to stop the bleeding, to stabilize him. She couldn't see clearly, she didn't need to, her heart was pounding the sound deafening in her montrals.
"Rex, please…" she leaned over him, her mouth next to his ear. "You promised, you promised you'd always be here…" she whimpered softly, "You said you'd come to Naboo…" she let in a shaky breath "When the war was over… you promised… Please… please don't go…"
Her coms were still open, which meant around her the men heard her plea, Jesse stopped staring at the direction where she was as he and some of the other ran towards her. Kix was close, he'd be there any minute, he had a team, and a ship was coming, he had a crash cart.
"D'bhem…" she whimpered softly "Please don't do this… don't leave, please… I can't, I don't know how to fight this without you." Heavy sobs wracked her body "Rex, please," she begged as if just begging was enough. "I love you… please don't go… I'm not ready to lose you…" she whimpered. "You said always… you promised…" another broken sob. "I can't, I can't go to Mandalore alone, I don't want to fight him on my own… please…" her breath hitched
Kix was there, his hands over her own and she looked at him, the medic's heart clenched, she looked so broken and scared, she was terrified. Her hands glowing the gentle green color that force healing had.
"Don't stop that, I'm gonna get a tube in, do not stop healing him," he told her and she meekly nodded. "Look at me," he ordered her "Focus General, what's the highest priority?"
"His lungs are really bad, a rib punctured one," Jesse reached her and tapped off her com, no need for everyone to hear this, they all already heard her pleas for him to live, they didn't need more heartbreak, she didn't even notice. The men that showed laid down cover while the medic team got him on a stretcher.
"General, can you keep it up till we're back on the ship and I can get him on the table?" he asked and she nodded. "Good, Jesse, watch her…" he warned, he'd heard stories of Jedi passing out in exhaustion from healing someone simply from pouring all their energy into it if that happened someone would have to keep her from falling while he may have to take emergency actions. She just looked at his face, whispering pleas in Togruti for him to stay alive, she'd abandoned basic long ago, Kano and Ox were on the shuttle too, watching her, she seemed so distraught and broken like her entire world was on the verge of shattering. They got him into the medbay and prepped for emergency surgery, enough to fix the bleeding, the rest could be done in a bacta tank.
"Alright, General…" she didn't look at him. "Ahsoka," he tried and her broken blue eyes looked at him. "You can stop, Jesse's gonna take you out of the surgery room, I'll call you as soon as he's done but you can't stay." she nodded, the glow faded and Jesse pulled her from the room. Kix sighed "She bought us time, let's not waste it."
"You need to eat."
"Not hungry"
"Doesn't matter," Jesse said and guided her to the mess hall. He put some food in front of her and coaxed her to eat at least half of it. "Come on, let's go to the gym."
"Why?"
"So you can beat the shit out of a punching bag." he insisted as they walked she'd pause and look back towards the medbay, a ripple in the force making her breath hitch, "He'll be fine." Jesse insisted. It worked, for the most part, her long pauses and panicked expressions that looked at him with brokenness he wasn't sure he'd ever see again, pained him to his core.
"I can't…" she whimpered and collapsed to her knees on the mat, her hands shaking, coming to cover over her montrals as if that'd stop it.
"He's…" she sobbed and Jesse did what the only thing he could, he pulled her tight against his blacks and held her, through the sobs wreaking havoc on her form, every one of them shaking her to her core. Others saw it, soon they were there too, their arms around her small frame as if they themselves could keep her from shattering into a million pieces. Which, force forbid if Rex didn't make it, they may have to.
"Please don't let him die…" she whimpered, no one asked who she was pleading too, it was their thoughts just vocalized, no one wanted to lose their Captain, no one wanted to watch their General fall apart in front of them.
Anakin found them, on the floor, he let out a shaky breath and approached the group, they unhinged themselves from their collective shield around the Togruta female. She peered up at him, puffy red eyes and puffy cheeks
"Oh snips…" he said and collected her in his arms himself. "He'll make it, he's strong."
"Best Kamino produced." One of the men offered softly Anakin nodded.
"You'll be okay…" he pulled her back his hand resting between her montrals. "You both will," he promised and pushed at her through the force his hand trailing down over her face, her eyelids becoming heavy and closing as her form relaxed in his arms.
"Sir?"
"Mind trick, she's just sleeping," he said and scooped her up "She won't rest otherwise," he carried her back to her quarters and set her down on her bunk, pulling up the chair and resting himself into it, sitting, waiting for some kind of news.
The news came, several hours later, Rex made it out of surgery and was in the bacta tank, if he survived the night he'd be fine. Ahsoka made her way to the medical bay, Anakin close behind her. She sat in front of his tank, her forehead pressed up against the glass.
"I'm so sorry Rex… I should have done something…" she whimpered Anakin's hands were on her shoulders
"You saved him," he reminded her "You kept him alive." She only nodded her head still against the glass. "Come on Snips, you can't stay here you'll be here when he wakes up…"
That turned out to be about 2 days, she refused to leave when they drained the tank and pulled him out, refused to leave when they pat him dry and place him in a bed, no matter how much the bacta burned her nose to the point of almost vomiting. She stayed while Kix put in the reversal, pulled the tube, and covered him with a sheet. She stayed until motion under his eyelids had her standing. They fluttered open and then clenched shut, a simple hand motion dimmed the lights in the room.
"Rex…" a plea, broken, scared as if he'd just be gone again. He looked at her watched all the emotions play out on her face and his heart broke.
"'Soka…" he started his hand moving towards her, he didn't need to, she was over his form, crowding him, pressed tightly against him, her feet still on the floor. "Oh cyar'ika…" he cooed gently and pulled her to him, up onto the bed, up into his arms, keeping her tight against his chest as she broke, again, and cried, again.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to get blasted, "'Soka, I'm so sorry…" he kissed the top of her head, his lips resting as he continued to speak. "I'm here, I'm not going anywhere," he promised her soothing motions over her back with one hand the other keeping her firmly against him.
"I could have lost you…"
"You won't." he insisted.
"What would I do?"
"You'd survive, you'd live, you'd love." she shook her head but he shushed her all the same, he had to, for his own sanity really. She fell asleep, her body relaxed against him. Kix came in,
"Gave us quite the scare Captain…" the medic noted, "I don't know if you want it on record, but her com channel was open when you got blasted."
"Send it to me, I'll sort it out," he said and Kix nodded
"You are able to be discharged, but I haven't seen General Tano sleeping much, so I'd like you to not move for a bit."
"I don't want to." he paused looking at her, "How bad was it?" Kix paused looked at Ahsoka again before letting out a long breath, who knew how long he'd been holding onto it, the other clone could guess.
"A several ribs cracked on impact, one punctured your lung, another was pressing into your heart, the rest of your internals were damaged from the concussive force of the shock wave which caused severe internal bleeding, concussion but the swelling on that's basically gone, minor facial abrasions the thermal display in your helmet shattered, you're lucky you could have gone blind, display is already getting fixed."
"How'd she react?" he asked, pulling her just a little tighter, keeping her just a little closer.
"She saved your life," he stated it simply "Had she not immediately ran to you and started healing you wouldn't have made it to the table…" Kix didn't sugar coat things. "None of the others in that blast did, despite our best efforts, the damage was just too much." Kix paused looking at the woman again. "I don't think I've ever seen her so broken Rex," he noted "She kept you stabilized until we got to the table, I had Jesse watching her in case she passed out, evidently he made her eat something and then had her beat on a punching bag, but that only lasted so long. Skywalker used some mind trick to make her sleep, stayed till I called telling her you were out of surgery and in the tank."
"Kix, what if I die…" he asked softly "What will she do?"
"Single handedly end the war is my guess…" he tried to be positive "You're not going to die."
"She'll go mad…"
"We all will." the captain let out a heavy sigh
"When she's awake you're free to head back and shower, luckily we have a few rotations till we are back for a resupply, you'll have time to rest, and I do mean rest. Rex," he gave him a pointed stare
"What?"
"No intense drills, you can do warm ups if you're stir crazy but that's it. Please, try and limit your extracurricular activities as well, I don't want you back here because you exhausted yourself." he narrowed his eyes "I mean it."
"Okay okay limiting myself." He rolled his eyes, Kix sighed heavily and left, the captain might not kill him but damn it if he wouldn't send him to an early grave.
It was a few hours before Ahsoka woke up, Rex had drifted off himself in that time but being awoken with a peppering of kisses over his exposed skin was not a bad way to wake up.
"Easy cyare," he cautioned, "I got to take it easy for a few days." he told her "Kix's orders." she nodded but didn't stop, obvious that it was more to get rid of the traces of Bacta more than anything.
"I can go, now that you're up, get showered off."
"Good, you stink," she mumbled against his skin, slowly she got up standing on her own feet and stretched out idly.
They took it easy, Rex's quarters were closer to the med bay, while Ahsoka's were closer to the bridge, but they opted for hers, Rex knew his armor would be all over his quarter's right now and he didn't feel like dealing with it.
When they got there Rex turned on the shower, letting the water heat up and easily stripped down, he looked back at Ahsoka who seemed frozen.
"You coming?" he asked and she nodded softly, following his lead and following him under the stream of water. Her silence was concerning, but he tried to think that it was her being tired. As he took the time to shower off the remaining bacta she wrapped her arms around him from behind, her arms coming under his own, her hands splayed out on his chest, one covering the blaster scar, he felt her forehead press between his shoulder blades. He waited, keeping one hand over one of her own as he continued, it wasn't long until a shudder broke through her, soft sounds of scared sobs being let out, he let her cry, he didn't move her, not for a while, finally he turned to keep her close, her montrals tucked under his chin.
"I'm not going anywhere," he promised
"I was so scared,"
"I know," he kissed the top of her head, "I won't do it again."
"It's my turn next anyway," she peered up at him with a soft smile.
"Oh hell no, we're not playing this game. No more injuries for either of us."
"I can live with that." her arms snaked around his neck, and he closed the distance between their lips. It wasn't long before they were done with the shower, barely drying off before falling back into Ahsoka's bed, nothing was overly urgent, nothing was a frenzy of scratches and bite marks. The night was searching of hands, noticing the subtle movements and reactions, a need to reestablish a bond, a need to reconnect. For Ahsoka is was to calm her own anxiety of almost losing him, Rex trying his best to assure her he wasn't going anywhere. He supposed this was exactly what Kix told him not to do, but at the moment, and for the next few hours, he couldn't be made to give a damn.
It was early the next morning when he woke up, untangling himself from the woman next to him, as she blinked at him with tired blue eyes, he dressed
"I gotta go check my kit before we land." he spoke softly and kissed her gently "I'll see you soon." he left, yes he wanted to check his kit, but more importantly he had to check the initial report, the one with her audio, Rex feared what would happen if the wrong person or type of people listened to that. No, there were no rules against it, but it didn't mean no one, especially a certain "karkin Tarkin" as the 501st referred to him as wouldn't raise a fit and a half over it.
He went to his quarters, locked the door, hit kit could wait for a little bit, grabbed the datapad and opened up the audio file from the incident report.
"Rex…"
Instantly his heart clenched
"Shit, Kix we need a medic now. Rex is down," Anakin spoke through the coms
"Rex…"
The clone could hear her running, hear the sounds of the battle in the background
"R-rex…" she tried again louder now,
He heard the sounds of her running across dirt and sand
"Rex…" she sounded broken
"Rex!" she tried, louder, more desperate
The sounds of her skidding, the sounds of armor unhooking, he knew all of them, he could guess she'd found him, she was looking him over
"Ahsoka Kix and the others are coming just hang tight," that was Anakin
"He's got a lot of bleeding…"..."His ribs…" Each breath was ragged, broken, a tortured whimper.
"His.. face.." the rest of the audio was broken sounds, sobs, and shaky intakes of breaths between pants
Rex looked over his armor while he listened, guessing where the damage behind the protective plates was the worse, his hand traced on his face but he felt nothing, already long healed with the Bacta.
"Focus on him Ahsoka, stats when the medics have him stable." Anakin's voice chimed in again
"Rex, please…"..."You promised, you promised you'd always be here…" another whimper, "You said you'd come to Naboo…" she let in a shaky breath "When the war was over… you promised… Please… please don't go…"
This was going to haunt him, she sounded on the verge of a breakdown, on the verge of shattering, somehow, even though there was nothing he could have done to prevent it, it was going to haunt his nightmares. He almost wanted to turn the audio off, just delete it, be done with it, erase it from the database and hopefully from his mind.
"D'bhem…" she whimpered "Please don't do this… don't leave, please… I can't, I don't know how to fight this without you." more sobbing"Rex, please,"
Rex thought, yes you could 'Soka, he just kept telling himself that she could fight this without him, if he wasn't there, she'd have to, for all their sakes, she'd have to.
"I love you… please don't go… I'm not ready to lose you…" she whimpered. "You said always… you promised…" another broken sob. "I can't, I can't go to Mandalore alone, I don't want to fight him on my own… please…" her breath hitched
Would either of them ever be ready? When he got old and died before she did, would she be ready then? Somehow he doubted it heavily that they'd ever been ready, he was never ready to lose a brother even when the odds were stacked against them. She could go to Mandalore without him, she'd have to, she had a planet to free, a sith to fight, and a balance to restore, she'd be fine, he told himself eventually, she'd be fine.
"Don't stop that, I'm gonna get a tube in, do not stop healing him,"..."Look at me,"..."Focus General, what's the highest priority?" Kix's voice was there, level, and even, grounding. Thank the force he was able to focus.
"His lungs are really bad, a rib punctured one," the audio stopped there, it was noted that Jesse turned her coms off then.
Rex let out a slow breath, it came out shaky, several deep breaths later and a quick splash of water on his face and he convinced himself he was fine. He amended the audio file, cutting out the bulk of Ahsoka's voice. He kept in his name from when she found him, Anakin's voice, and finally when Kix showed until the audio ended. The rest of the file was deleted, and the incident report filed officially. Rex checked over his armor, finding not much of anything wrong, kitted up, and headed to the bridge.