His hand suddenly let go and this time she did not manage to hold onto it. "No, Obi-Wan!," she called, as she watched the limb slip back into darkness.

No answer. Not even a sound. He must have lost consciousness again.

It scared her. She could not loose him. Not like this.

Satine squeezed back through the small opening and eyed the ship parts that blocked the hole. They needed to be moved.

Two smaller parts she easily managed to push aside but the biggest one – the one that kept her from reaching Obi-Wan – was too heavy for her. The duchess yelled in frustration as she pushed her weight against the piece - it did not move an inch in response.

She needed a different approach. Squeezing back into the crevice, she took the lamp from her head and tried to shine a light down to where Obi-Wan was, hoping to stir the man.

"Ben! Come back to me!"

A whimper echoed from below her, followed by a weak voice. ".. 'm h're…"

He sounded way worse than before. Satine's heart was squeezed painfully.

"I need to move the wreckage so that I can climb down to you," she tried to explain, hoping he could understand her, "Do you still have your lightsaber?"

"N'..o," he tried to speak only to be stopped by a harrowing coughing fit. Satine heard how he spit something out.

She forced herself not to imagine things. "Okay, don't worry… I-," it felt like she was deceiving him, "Can you use the Force to lift this piece up? It's directly above you."

It sounded like he was choking on his own breath as his hand emerged from the crevice again. Only now, in the cold light of her head lamp, did she notice that the limb was severely burned.

"… m've o..o't of the w'y," Obi-Wan forced out, barely understandable but she quickly did how he told her, hurrying away from the crevice.

"I'm out!," she yelled to let him know that she was safe.

It stirred something inside her that even in his state he was concerned for her wellbeing.

She watched with trepidation as the scrap metal started jerking upwards before it was finally flung aside.

"You did it," Satine breathed as she ran back to him, coming to a halt on the now open hole. Obi-Wan's hand laid limp on the stone it had crawled out from.

Not wasting more time, Satine climbed down onto a small ledge next to the rock Obi-Wan had slipped under. She took hold of his dangerously cold hand and shone a light down the crack.

Hazy, pain-filled eyes stared back at her. The white of his eyes contrasted harshly with the blood that was covering his face.

"Just a little while longer," Satine tried to reassure him, "I'm getting you out."

Obi-Wan weakly closed his eyes and tipped his head ever so slightly.

She leaned in closer, trying to discern how to get him free.

There was so much blood.

His tunic had been partly burned away, exposing angry looking, raw skin. The fire had traveled all the way up his neck and to the arm she was still holding, having eaten away cloth, skin – even the piece of armor he had been wearing around his forearm and shoulder had melted, forming an unholy alliance with the flesh beneath.

Satine wanted to be sick, but held herself together and instead forced her eyes on the objective at hand.

Underneath her, Obi-Wan subconsciously snapped his head back, trying to pull his hand from her grasp.

As she observed his movement, she was filled with horror.

Parts of the arm and shoulder moved in a way they shouldn't.

"Blast," she cursed, gently easing his arm down, "Why didn't you say your arm is broken?"

The jedi forced his eyes open. "N'eded to 'now yo'r still th're," he slurred, every word taking too much energy from his weakening body.

A tear lodged itself free from Satine's eye as she reached down with one hand, gently putting it against his face.

His head instantly leaned against it, basking in its warmth.

"I'm not going anywhere."

Her gaze shifted to his lower body – and his leg which was pinned underneath the rock.

Maybe – just maybe – she might be able to pull him out if he could lift the piece of rubble enough.

"I need to check if there is a rope with our supplies," she said, mostly talking to herself as he was already slipping away again, "Then I can try to secure you."

Satine lifted her hand from his face but stilled instantly as his eyes suddenly snapped open, frantically trying to locate her. The arm he should not move tried to reach for her.

He is afraid.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," she soothed, catching the limb mid-air, preventing him from hurting himself further.

Obi-Wan made a gurgling sound as he craned his neck to fix his gaze on her. "D'n't go…", he pleaded.

The blood on his face began to smear and she only then realized that he was crying.

Obi-Wan Kenobi was crying.

It broke her. For all the years she had known him, she had never seen him showing an emotion even resembling fear.

With glistening eyes, she pushed his arm back down. "I'm not leaving you, Obi. But I need to get the rope. Do you understand that?"

He did not.

His arm fought against hers, adamant to not let her go. Tears blurred her vision and she didn't want to do this, but she knew the more time she lost now the less likely Obi-Wan would survive.

"I'm sorry," she apologized as she grabbed his arm and dislodged it from hers, eliciting a strangled cry of pain. Blue eyes stared up at her, silently judging but Satine had to turn his only light away – basking him in darkness again.

She forced herself to turn away, making her way out of the crevice again. The bag was still there where she had left it. With numb fingers she opened it, scanning it for anything useful.

Her eyes locked on a coil of rope. "Yes," Satine triumphed even though her euphoria quickly dissipated again. She looped one end of the rope around a rock nearby, tugging on it to make sure it wouldn't come loose.

The other end she grasped firmly in her hand as she made her way down to Obi-Wan again, her heart beating painfully fast as her light found his still frame.

"I'm back," she announced, trying to get his attention, "Talk to me, Obi-Wan."

"'m n't feel'ng go'd, S'tine," he responded after a moment, trying to move in the tight space. One of the stones near his head creaked dangerously.

"Don't move," Satine hissed harshly, pressing her hand against said stone, only relaxing as the noise stopped again, "… okay, okay."

"S'rry."

She shook her head even though he could not see it. "No, it's alright," she focused back on him, "Obi-Wan, I need to get this rope under your arms so you don't slip in deeper when I try to get you out."

Her eyes again fell on his mutilated body – the burns and cuts. "… this will hurt."

Without waiting for his response she leaned as far down as she could, her head almost meeting his – and started threading the rope first under the arm he had been moving all the time. The rope went through easy enough but as soon as it made contact with his body, he let out a grunt.

"I'm so sorry…," Satine murmured, almost feeling his pain herself as she kept pushing the rope behind his back, trying to avoid the worst of his injuries on the way.

Not that it will make a difference when I start moving him.

She finally reached his left arm which he hadn't used at all – despite it looking relatively fine. Her hand reached out to gently tuck it up for a moment so she could loop the rope around when a small voice stopped her.

"Wait…"

Satine turned her head, directly meeting his eyes. "What's wrong?"

She watched how his Adam's apple bopped up and he tried to suck in a breath before he spoke. "D'n't m've my hand."

Her brows creased in concern and she tried to lean above him to see what he meant. The first thing Satine's lamp found was again blood – and a piece of metal that had lodged itself in Obi-Wan's chest. His hand lay pressed around the shard, clearly holding pressure on the wound.

A curse slipped from her tongue and despite the situation she saw a hint of smile creep on the jedi's face. "I'll be careful…," she said shocked, "… just try to keep your hand as still as possible."

Obi-Wan's arm tensed up as she shifted it slightly to get the rope through and let out a sigh of relief when everything seemed alright. "Got it," she rambled, while pulling the rope taut and tying it off in a sturdy knot in front of his chest.

Now came the hardest part.

"I can try pulling you up if you can lift that rock on your leg."

His eyes trailed down to the boulder that held his leg trapped. "I d'n't kn'w if I c'n do th't," he admitted, shaking under her hands.

"You have to try, Obi… please."

The jedi tilted his head again, tiredly meeting her determined look with his bloodshot eyes. He nodded slightly.

"Good," Satine forced a reassuring smile on her lips and leaned down to push her arms under his armpits and lock them in front of his chest.

He whimpered as she did so and screwed his eyes shut, clenching his jaw against the pain.

"Whenever you are ready," she told him, strengthening her hold.

Obi-Wan took another wet breath and stretched out his broken arm, holding it over the boulder. "Now," he gasped as the rock began to move.

Satine gave everything she had – and pulled. Obi-Wan screamed as he came free with a sickening crunch and she screamed with him, determined to get him out.

Just as his foot slipped past the boulder, he let go, the rock crashing back into place.

"I've got you, I've got you," she repeated as she pulled him onto the ledge with her, holding him close to her chest, "Keep breathing."

Obi-Wan took another shuddering breath – and suddenly stilled.

"Obi-Wan?", Satine asked, panicking. Her fingers trembled as she hectically fingered for a pulse. She only breathed again as she found it – weak but most definitely there.

His hand had slipped away from the shrapnel in his stomach, blood steadily oozing from the wound. Without thinking, Satine shrugged out her tunic, tying it tightly around it as best as she could.

The cold air pricked at her now bare skin but the adrenaline surging through her body kept her mind off it.

She needed to get both of them out of this hole now – and then try to treat his wounds. Satine looked up. It was maybe two meters till the surface. She would need to use the rope to pull Obi-Wan up.

Better do it now. Spare him some of the pain while he was unconscious. Satine gently eased him down onto the ledge, positioning him in a way so that she could pull on the rope without hurting him further.

Then she made her way up the wall again. Her arms strained from the effort and her hands hurt where the stones had nicked her skin.

But she could not stop. She couldn't.

Dragging herself up, she immediately took hold of the rope, not giving her time for respite. With a strength she didn't know she possessed, she pulled.

After what felt like an eternity, Obi-Wan emerged from the ground and she quickly made a grab for him, pulling him away from the crevice.

She carefully laid him on his back, watching how his chest rose with a rattling noise. He was still out cold. His skin was dangerously white, clammy to the touch.

Her eyes wandered over to the cloth pieces and plastoid armor that had partly molten onto his skin. Satine didn't have the proper tools or the skills to do this. Their medkit only provided them with probably enough rolls of bandages, a small tube of bacta, disinfectant, four hypos, a blister of painkillers and scalpels.

She wanted to cry.

There was no way for them to call for help. It would take time before people would start looking for them – and Death Watch would probably always find them first.

Maybe it would be a mercy to just kill him right there – quickening the inevitable.

She shook herself and banished that dark thought. Detached, she got to work, carefully peeling small pieces from his skin – hoping he would not wake in the process.

The man still jerked every now and then in his unconscious state as she pulled away the armor pieces, making her stomach clench.

She hated having to cause him such pain. Him writhing like that on the ground would haunt her forever – she was sure like that.

After what felt like hours she had pulled away the last piece of tunic from his skin and had cleaned the wounds as best as she could. Her hands were shaking as she pulled the bandages around him.

The last thing she did was exchanging her by now blood-soaked tunic with a bandage, not daring to touch the shrapnel.

Satine eased him back down onto the ground, letting his upper body rest against her and took hold of his broken arm, gently cradling it in front of him to relieve the pressure. She only spared a glance at the leg which had been trapped by the rock. It was bent in multiple places – but she didn't have the strength to do something about it.

With a last effort she pulled one of the sleeping bags from the kit and draped it loosely over them.

Satine's energy was drained and she let herself be dragged into nothingness.

The first nightmare didn't wait long.