"It's clear they saw us coming," Wolffe declared with a wince Rex knew he'd tried so desperately to hide.
Cody noticed it, however, which is why, Rex supposed, his retort fell short of any real malice. "Thank you, Commander. I never would've known that if you hadn't so graciously stated the obvious."
"Well, what else do you want me to say?" Wolffe snapped back, his exposed cheeks already pink from the biting cold. "At least I'm not the one who said we wouldn't need our helmets until we landed!"
Cody took a step forward, his breath coming out in short, irritated puffs that Rex could see all too well. "I never said that!"
"You implied it! Very heavily!"
"You didn't have to listen!"
Here, Wolffe uncurled an arm from where it was warming his chest and jabbed at his brother's gold-painted armor. "You were the head man on this mission! I was ordered to follow you!"
"Yeah? And when has that ever stopped you?"
It was this jab that pulled a growl from Wolffe's throat and he launched himself at Cody. It was all Rex could do to throw himself between his brothers before they both did something they'd regret.
"Hey!" he shouted, flinging his arms out in a gesture of peace. "Knock it off, you two! Now's not the time!"
Either they'd actually taken Rex's words to heart or they were loath to hurt their "little brother," and Rex hoped it was due more to the first one. Nevertheless, they stopped their angry advances, choosing instead to cup their hands to their mouths for warmth.
"Now," Rex said, following suit, "who still has an active comlink?"
"Well, mine is connected to my helmet," Wolffe rubbed in, earning an eye roll from Cody, "which was lost in the crash."
"Right, well, it's not my fault that the 104th-"
"I said enough!" Rex shouted. "I swear, I'll find a way off this ice bucket myself if you two don't quit it!"
He watched his brothers exchange one last pointed glance as he fiddled with his comlink. The garbled static could barely be heard over the howling Hoth winds. Come on… Come on!
"Anything?" Wolffe asked, hovering over his shoulder. Rex shook his head. "Well, keep trying."
The brief hand on his shoulder did nothing to warm the captain, but he appreciated the gesture of reassurance all the same.
"All right," Cody began, his voice taking on an all-business tone, "heating systems on, boys."
Wolffe muttered something about not having to ask him twice and Rex made a show of switching his on, keeping his eyes fixed on Cody for every second of the charade.
After all, his brothers didn't need to know that the controls for his armor's heating system had been smashed during their crashland. He'd be fine, of course he would. All they had to do was contact the Resolute or the listening post.
"Anything?"
"You mean since you last asked?" Rex didn't even bother to glance over at Wolffe. "No. Cody?"
"Negative. I can't even hear anything over this wind!"
"The weather must be interfering with the signal," Wolffe suggested gruffly as he scanned the barren horizon. "We need to find a way out of all this wind."
With a nod, Cody shivered, his suit still having yet to warm him up. "Maybe then we can work on making contact."
Rex suppressed a shiver of his own and nodded. "Yeah. The sooner we get out of this snow, the sooner we can get off this planet."
"When I meet the rookie who thought Hoth would be a perfect place to install a listening post," Wolffe declared as they all forced themselves to start shoving their way through the thick walls of wind, "there will be words. Maybe even a demotion."
This earned an amused snort from Rex and an eye roll from Cody.
"Poor sap," the 212th Commander mumbled.
"Hey," Rex offered with a grin that looked more like a grimace, "at least we don't have to worry about any Seppies gunning us down."
"Yeah?" Wolffe shook his head, rubbing at his frostbitten cheeks. "I'd take an entire fleet of Separatists over this blasted cold any day."
"You hate the cold, Wolffe, we get it," Cody said. "You always have. Remember back at the academy when you—"
"Don't you dare! Whatever memory you're trying to resurface, just stuff it."
"Fine. Forgive me for trying to lighten the mood."
"At the expense of my dignity, no thank you."
This time, it was Rex's turn to roll his eyes.
Another shiver threatened to possess his body, but he steeled himself against it. "There's got to be a cave somewhere."
Wolffe nodded and took another scan of the area with his macro-binoculars. "If there is, I'm not seeing it."
"We just have to keep moving. Keep our bodies warm."
Wolffe shot Cody another look and Rex wondered which of the two had woken on the wrong side of their bunk that morning, if not both.
"Our bodies are warm," he reminded. "Hence the heating systems."
"Just keep walking, Commander."
A low growl, which had Rex thinking maybe his brother took his name a bit too seriously. "I never stopped."
This time, Rex didn't waste his breath telling them to knock it off. At least it's entertaining.
They continued on in silence for a while, rather, Rex continued in silence while his brothers swapped battle strategies for campaigns that had nothing to do with their current situation.
Just a little further, he told the last vestiges of warmth left in his body. Just hang on. You can make it.
You have to make it.
But he couldn't stop the next shiver, nor the one after that, and when his teeth began to clink against each other, he firmly set his jaw, clamping down on the effects of the cold.
"So," Wolffe was saying when Rex tuned back into the conversation, now a welcome distraction from the frigid air, "when do you two think Bly is gonna cave and get together with General Secura? I'll be taking all bets now, thank you."
Cody snorted. "She's a Jedi, di'kut! Attachment is forbidden. They can't just get together."
Wolffe merely shrugged. "But if they could—and because he's obviously head over heels for her—when do you think it would happen?"
"I give i-it another m-month," Rex said and immediately regretted opening his mouth. His voice came out raspy and tremorous, earning a suspicious look from Cody.
"Are you okay, Rex?"
He offered his best, most reassuring smile. "Who is in this frozen hell?" He wisely left off the "am I right?" This was no time for jokes.
Wolffe muttered his agreement with a series of Mando'a swears, ones no doubt taught to him by Jango Fett so many years ago.
"Is your heating system at full power?" Cody quizzed.
"Well, I don't want to burn myself, now do I?" Rex tried, but he could see his evasive answers were getting him nowhere, and though he hated lying to his vod, desperate times called for desperate measures. He rolled his eyes for effect. "Yes, Cody. It's on. Just worry about yourself, okay?"
"I'll worry about my men," Cody responded, a touch of worry lacing his commanding voice. "And right now, that includes you."
"Well, I'm fine."
Wolffe bit out a dark chuckle. "As fine as anyone can be on this giant snowball."
"What he s-said." Stang!
Despite the chilled stutter, Cody left him alone for a while, turning back to Wolffe for stimulating conversation.
And so they marched on. Trudging through the thick, endless blanket of snow that covered the planet.
With every step, Rex lost a little more feeling in his face and feet, to the point where he didn't even notice when they had lost feeling altogether.
He couldn't remember exactly when he'd slipped his hand into Cody's. All he knew was that he was falling behind. He needed a hand to hold, someone to help him along where his frostbitten feet could not.
They had crashed hours ago, but Rex still felt the jolts and shudders of the ship as if he was going through the whole ordeal all over again. His body shook and he didn't know how to stop the feeling; how to get out of the memory enough to leave the residual feelings behind.
We're almost there…
Almost…
Where…?
"Rex?" Cody's voice sounded distant, his brother having to shout in order to be heard over the whipping winds.
And Rex did not stumble. He simply… lost his footing for a moment. Once he'd regained his balance, he continued his mindless trek through the cold.
Until his shivering body reminded him that his hand was still locked in Cody's, and that his brother hadn't moved from where they'd stopped before. Thus, Rex's second stumble, in which he would most certainly have toppled backwards if his brothers hadn't gripped him tightly between them, putting a halt to his potential fall.
It took Rex a moment to focus on the world around him, on the worried faces hovering inches from his own.
"Rex!" That was Cody, though it sounded an awful lot like Wolffe… "Are you all right?"
"'M fine," Rex replied, cursing the way his frozen lips made his voice slur. "Yeah… Y-Yeah, 'm f-f-fine…"
"Right," Wolffe said, his tone a mix of worried sarcasm. Then, Rex felt the wonderful touch of warmed gloves on his neck. "His pulse is weak."
"Kriff!" He felt Cody's hands probe the controls on his wrist.
Stang.
When the warm fingers left his neck, Rex mourned the loss greatly.
His secret had mere seconds now left to live; his deceit would soon be thrust out in the open to freeze to death like Rex himself.
"Rex!" Cody's tone was sharp and the captain knew he was trying to conceal his anxiety. "You kriffing idiot! How long has your heating system been down?"
Rex gave a lethargic shrug.
"How. Long."
He would've fidgeted under the commander's stare had he the energy, and it even took a moment for Rex to calm his chattering teeth enough to give a coherent reply.
"Rex…"
Trying hard to keep eye contact, he felt Cody's warm gloves cup his cheeks and Wolffe's heat the back of his neck. It was a marvelous, intoxicating feeling and Rex found it hard to stay awake.
After all, his legs and hands were already beginning to grow warmer as well, so he was going to be fine.
Just fine.
"I n-never," Rex began, "t-turned it on."
Wolffe bit out a string of curses, some of which Rex had never heard before.
"It broke in the crash," Cody stated, doing nothing to hide his disappointment. "Vape it, Rex, why didn't you tell us?"
"What c-could you have d-d-done about it?"
"A whole lot more than you did!" Cody touched off the rebuke with a few curses of his own before unfastening his chest and back plates.
Catching on quickly, Wolffe began removing Rex's, much to the latter's frigid confusion. In no time, Cody's armor was sending waves of warmth through his blacks and across his skin. He nearly melted under the pleasant feeling.
Though his brain was now moving at a Hutt's pace, Rex noted Cody tapping desperately at his comlink while Wolffe swapped out Rex's shin guard for his own.
"Honestly," the grey armored commander scolded, "I used to have better faith in your self-preservation abilities, vod'ika."
Rex didn't reply, he simply savored the warmth of the borrowed armor. Soon, his entire right half and chest sported the golden-orange colors of the 212th, and his left was decked out in Wolfpack armor.
"Anything?" Wolffe asked, to which Cody replied with a negative. More cursing ensued and Rex made a mental note to find out what each word meant when they got back home.
"How is he?" Came Cody's question, his voice tight with worry. This time, he felt Rex's pulse himself. "Kriff."
"We need shelter, Cody." Rex felt Wolffe's artificially warmed hands press against his neck again. "We need to get him out of this wind."
"I know that!" Cody snapped, trying his comlink one more time. "Blast it!"
The next garbled exchange went right over Rex's head and he found his tired mind wandering to brighter subjects…
Like the sun. Those twin suns on Tatooine were pretty nice. Even Jakku seemed like a dream compared to Hoth…
Felucia… Felucia was nice too…
In the distance, he heard shouting and cries of joy. Maybe they really liked Felucia too…
"Rex,"—and now someone was patting his cheeks with blessedly warm hands—"stay with me, brother. Stay with me."
Cody…?
"We need to get his temperature up again," Wolffe said, to which Cody nodded.
Rex found himself nodding too because warm sounded good. Maybe the warm could bring his feet back… He still couldn't feel them and he was having difficulty deciding whether or not that was a bad thing. It felt a little like walking on air, which would've been cool if he didn't feel so miserable.
"Rex, listen to me." Cody was in his face again, his own cheeks red from the cold. "I just made contact with the listening post. They're gonna come for us soon, but right now, we all need to run, all right?"
Run?
"W-Where?"
A beat. "I don't know. We just have to do it, okay?"
Rex gave a small nod that felt more like he was losing control of his neck muscles than agreeing with his commander.
"You really think he'll be able to run?" Wolffe's voice was the epitome of incredulous.
"We have to try. Even with our heated armor, his temperature is still dropping. It was already too low to begin with. If he exerts himself enough then maybe… It might buy him some time. Time he won't have if we just keep standing here like idiots. Now, come on!"
Cody's hand slid into Rex's and the captain felt Wolffe's follow suit on the opposite side.
And then, he was flying. Flying through the snow-stuffed air to someplace safe.
Or to their frozen graves.
Whichever it may be, Rex was too tired to find out, and the first quarter of their marathon he spent being dragged between his brothers. But soon, his legs put together a few of the pieces and began running on their own.
Looking back, he wouldn't remember whose foot got caught in the ice chuck, or which of his brothers let go first, but he would recall the way time seemed to skip almost instantly from flying him through the air to sinking his face further into the snow bank.
And it felt so vaping good just to lay there.
The snow pressed warm and welcoming against his cheeks and forehead, making Rex wish he could stay there for hours. Now, if he could only catch a good breath, everything would truly be fine.
Then, hands began pulling him away from his precious warmth. He blinked a few times, but his eyes stubbornly refused to open.
That was fine. He was looking forward to a nap back on the Resolute anyway. Might as well just do it here…
"Rex! Rex!" And, stars! Would they ever stop shouting in his ears? "Rex! You've gotta stay with me, buddy. Stay with me!"
And was that Cody or Wolffe? Probably both…
Someone was patting his cheeks again and the warm gloves from earlier now pressed against the front and back of his head.
"Rex!" But the voices were distant now, almost as if he were imagining them. "Come on, vod'ika, don't do this to me!"
That was definitely Cody, he noted briefly before his mind continued its descent into darkness. Maybe the darkness wouldn't be so cold…
"There!" Someone shouted, and the next thing Rex knew, he was being lifted into the air.
One of his brothers was holding him—carrying him—and it felt nice. He could just sleep right there…
"Come on, come on!" Wolffe shouted. Rex knew it was Wolffe because the voice was too far away to be Cody.
Then, he was on the ground again, or something like the ground, and he found himself missing his brother's warm arms.
"Rex!" This time, he answered the call with a few lethargic blinks. Cody's scarred face came briefly into view… And the faces of two shinies…? When did they get here?
"It's gonna be okay, Rex," Cody was saying. "You're gonna be okay."
A blast of warm air enveloped him and the snowy world of Hoth transformed into the dark ceiling of a ship.
"I just need you to stay awake for me, okay?"
But that was too hard. He tried. Really, he tried, but the darkness was so inviting and the clip, clip, clip of Wolffe's pacing was starting to annoy him.
Sorry…
His mouth moved, yet the words remained trapped inside his mind.
"Rex? Rex!" Cody was worried. Stang. He hated making Cody worry. But his eyes were too heavy; his mind was pressing down on him. "I need an oxygen mask, now!"
Oxygen sounded good. He could always use more of that…
"You're gonna be okay, Rex…" he blinked as Cody's voice faded. "You're going to be okay…"
And then he lost Cody completely, welcoming the inky, heated claws of the darkness. Maybe he'd never come back, but the warmth would be worth it all.
Right…?
Rex woke up in the listening post medical station several hours later to the sound of his brothers arguing. With a small smile, he closed his eyes again and allowed their tirades to lull him back to sleep.
"All I'm saying is that if she wasn't a Jedi, they'd be making out against every kriffing wall by now!"
"And I'm telling you that she's a vaping Jedi! Attachment. Is. For. Bidden!"
"But if she wasn't…"
When the darkness took him once more, Rex was certain he'd come back out of it this time.
Because Cody was right. He was always right.
Rex was gonna be all right.