I stood tall and flexed my shoulders, activating my lightsaber and stepping forth with such confidence that the earth below me trembled. I stared at Trask's killer and twirled my double-bladed lightsaber in my hands gracefully. I stopped a few feet in front of him and held it menacingly.

"You are the one they call Zerstoren, are you not?" He asked, cracking his neck.

"And you are the one who killed my friend Trask on the Endar Spire, are you not?" I hissed.

"Names are irrelevant to me. I am the apprentice of Lord Malak himself." He boasted, stepping closer.

"I don't care if you were descended from Revan himself, you die here."

He didn't waste time attacking me. Carth immediately drew his blasters and fired at him while Bastila attacked some of his underlings. I personally went toe-to-toe with Malak's so-called apprentice. His moves were extremely flawed and it didn't take very long to cut him down. If his apprentice was that easy, I doubt that Malak will be any more difficult. I quickly jumped to Carth's position, where he clumsily fought with a dark Jedi. Melee was not his specialty, and it would no doubt get him killed if I didn't help him. Together we killed the remaining dark Jedi as Bastila deactivated her lightsaber and sighed, looking towards the hot desert sun that was beginning to set.

"I think it's time we get going." I sighed and stretched.

"I agree, it's..." Carth started, but suddenly collapsed.

"Carth, are you okay?" I panicked, rushing to his side.

"It's nothing," he winced, "Just a little scratch is all."

I tore open his shirt and saw that he took more damage than I originally thought. Blood oozed from the wound slightly, so I tore off part of my Jedi robe and used it as a tourniquet until we could get onto the Ebon Hawk. I hoisted him up and wrapped his arm around my shoulder so he could use me as a crutch, but I soon realized just how much muscle he had.

"Geez Carth, you weigh a ton!" I panted as I dragged him through the desert.

"What did you honestly expect? I'm a soldier after all!"

--

After trekking for countless miles through the cold desert, we finally boarded the Ebon Hawk. I lay Carth down in the medical bay as I searched for any kind of medicine that would help him. I tore shelves apart and threw sterile needles out of footlockers while Carth groaned in pain and tried to roll over.

"Don't worry Carth, you'll be fine."

Perhaps I spoke too soon. He rolled over and vomited blood onto the durasteel floor. I cursed under my breath as I ran to get Bastila, as she could heal far better than I could. She switched to auto-pilot and ran into the medical bay with me as Carth looked as white as the sheets I laid him on.

"Can't you force heal yet?" Bastila sighed in aggravation.

"You really think I can fix that?" I screamed in panic and pointed to the blood around his mouth.

"You honestly believe that I can?"

Bastila went to work on trying to heal him while I perused the shelves a little more carefully. There was a morphine vial and a vial of Demerol in a locked cabinet, and as far as I knew, no one had the key.

"Carth, do you have an allergy to Morphine?" I called out.

He weakly replied no, so I wrapped my hand in some gauze and punched the glass open. Bastila was already waiting for me with a sterile needle, and we put our heads together to try and figure out what dose to give a big guy like Carth. We injected him in the vein most visible in his arm and his slowly stopped writhing and laid still.

"That's the most we can do until we find a healer on a different planet." Bastila sighed, wringing the blood off her hands.

Big Z suddenly appeared in the room, staring at Carth in deep thought. Finally he spoke up.

"I am sure the healers on my planet will try and heal him."

"Kashyyyk? I thought you never wanted to go there?"

"When a friend is in danger, personal comfort needs to be sacrificed." He roared.

I nodded in agreement as I ordered Bastila to plot our course for Kashyyyk. She nodded hesitantly and ran to the control room as Big Z left, leaving me alone with an unconscious Carth. I touched his hand and was surprised at how cold it was. I got up and dug through the cooler to find at least one bag of blood, and was surprised to find one. Better yet, it was O-. I quickly grabbed it and set up an IV in the same vein that I used to give him morphine and watched as the blood slowly ran into his arm. One bag wasn't going to be enough, so I grabbed a needle and rolled up my sleeve, using a cloth as a tourniquet.

"Your RH factor is positive, right Carth?" I asked.

He weakly opened his eyes and gave me a thumbs up. I sighed in relief; I was O+ so I could donate to anyone who had a positive RH factor. I stuck the needle in my arm and flexed my hand to make sure it was dripping into the bag correctly. I felt slightly dizzy as my grip became weaker, but it was merely just a side effect as I was terrified of needles. When I saw the bag was full, I carefully took the needle out and quickly replaced the empty bag with the full one. I watched as the color started to come back to his face and hands. I touched him ever so slightly and noted that he was starting to get a little warmer.

"You're a lifesaver Zerstoren." He chuckled slightly.

"Yeah, don't mention it big guy." I replied and beamed.