Chapter Text
The Temple is a roar of activity today, has been ever since the announcement of Master Piell’s capture, the loss of an entire battalion, and subsequent imprisonment in the Citadel; Ahsoka knows there’s a mission coming up, to rescue Master Piell. Expects it to be given to her and Anakin, and Master Obi-Wan--even though Kix is adamant she shouldn’t be allowed on a mission that intense yet.
She can hear him now: Commander, you’ve only been walking for two weeks, get your karking ass back in bed before I make you.
He’s not going to be very pleased when he finds out she’s going to Lola Soyu, of all places.
“Master, I’m sorry I’m late,” Ahsoka says, jogging up behind Anakin, Master Obi-Wan, and Master Plo (and she tries to ignore the way running still makes her leg ache). “I just heard about the briefing. We’re going to rescue Master Piell, right?”
Obi-Wan gives Anakin a look, and her Master stops, turns to her and crosses his arm. Kriff. Kriff, kriff, kriff, that is not good. Master Plo turns partway around, gives her a nod, says, “You two have much to discuss.”
Damn it.
She looks to Anakin, hoping that she’s not about to hear the words she thinks she is, but-- “Ahsoka, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, but… you won’t be coming along on this one.”
“Not coming?” she manages, swallows hard. “But you’re breaking into the Citadel. No one’s ever done it. You’ll need me, Master.”
He shakes his head, turns and starts walking. “The Citadel wasn’t designed to hold common criminals--it was created to hold Jedi, if any of us lost our way.” He stops, for a second, his voice dropping a bit. “It’s not a place for padawans.”
“You’re just being protective again,” she snaps, and he turns to look back at her. “That’s not fair! Is it because of my leg? I’m fine, Kix says I can go--” and he scoffs, but she ignores him. “How am I supposed to learn if you don’t let me share the risk?”
She’s sick and tired of being trapped in the Temple all the time. Of having nothing but meditation and the occasional supervised lightsaber practice to distract her from the way Rex has retreated, gone cold, professional and steely as though nothing ever happened (gone back to the way he hasn’t been since… for months, now). She wants to go.
“This isn’t a mission for learning,” Anakin spits out, gestures sharply. “You either do, or you die. And that’s not a risk I’m willing to share.”
And he turns and walks away.
~~~
Rex does not want to attack the Citadel. The prison fortress is infamous among even the shinies, and they're expected to infiltrate it with a strike team. Not that it's up to him - but if it was, he would count it as a lost cause.
The one saving grace is that Commander Tano is staying behind. Not that he doubts her, or her abilities, but the Citadel was meant to hold Jedi Masters, criminals, and Rex doesn't think there will be space to make mistakes. Kix has kept him updated on the Commander’s leg, and it's mostly healed, but it would slow her down and they couldn't afford that.
Apparently, this mission is going to involve reprogrammed battle droids - under General Skywalker's kriffing astromech , because they didn't have enough uncertain elements in their plan. Rex thinks that will be distracting - and he does not particularly appreciate the decision to paint a bunch of clankers in 501st blue. Kriffing ridiculous.
He sees Commander Tano talking to General Plo (and, if he had to guess based on her expression, she’s annoyed - hells, she probably wishes she was going along), walks a little faster towards where Generals Skywalker and Kenobi have just walked into the hangar with Echo and a few more of his men.
And this is the other part of the plan Rex isn’t particularly fond of - actually, this is the bit so far that has him the most on edge. “I’ve never been carbon frozen before, General,” he says, falling in next to Skywalker, tightening his hold on the helmet under his arm. Carbon freezing isn’t for lifeforms , kriff’s sake.
“Yeah, it’s a first for us too,” Skywalker says, like that’s reassuring.
General Kenobi makes an unimpressed, dubious noise that Rex has become very familiar with. “ This is your idea? Carbon freezing? ”
Skywalker shrugs carelessly. “Hey, you wanted to shield us from the lifeform scanners.”
Rex wants to stay home.
Fives twists around to look at all of them as they come to a stop next to the daunting-looking mechanics of the carbon freezing system, frowning. “Are… we sure this thing is safe? I don’t wanna end up a wall decoration.” As if anyone would hang up Fives for decoration . Rex raises an eyebrow at him, knows his vod knows exactly what he means, but other than an offended look, Fives remains concerned. Kriffing vod is worried about his face getting kriffed up.
“Try to relax,” General Kenobi says, which is horrible advice, how does that help? “We’ll be unfrozen as soon as we arrive.”
And once they’re unfrozen, they go straight into the most dangerous mission they’ll probably ever attempt. Yes, thank you, General Kenobi, they’ll certainly try to relax . Hells.
Rex pins his bucket even tighter against his side, steps up where he’s directed to by a technician, grits his teeth. He does not want to do this , however skilled their strike team, and he’s got a tight feeling in his stomach; without meaning to, he looks toward where he last saw Commander Tano, because- he’s not even sure. But he doesn’t see her, and before he can be concerned about that, the hydraulic lift he’s standing on lowers him into a dark, narrow space (and gods , he does not like that, he’s trapped), and there’s only a momentary snap of cold before there’s nothing.
~~~
The carbon freeze releases with a hiss-snap and a sudden rush of warmth across her skin, and Ahsoka stumbles forward, catches herself on the carbonite in front of her, yawns and stretches the cricks out of her neck and shoulders.
“Hey, Snips,” Anakin says tiredly, stretching himself, fiddling with the join between his mech hand and his arm.
She yawns again, runs a hand over her face, her montrals, headtails (checking to make sure everything feels right), steps out from between the carbonite slabs. “Hey, Master.” Puts her hands on her hips and closes her eyes, stretching out her spine.
“I must have carbon sickness,” Master Obi-Wan says. “I could swear that’s Ahsoka.”
Anakin makes a noise, and she opens her eyes, looks over to see a very displeased look on his face. “Your eyes are fine,” he growls. “It’s Ahsoka’s hearing that needs help.”
“I received orders to join the team,” she says, walks a few steps away and hopes her voice is steady (hopes Anakin can’t tell she’s definitely lying). “I thought you knew!” She at least seems mostly-innocent.
“Orders?” Anakin asks, disbelieving. “From who?”
“I discussed it with Master Plo.” Which is close enough to the truth…
“He didn’t tell me.”
“You were… already in carbonite.”
Anakin closes his eyes, grits his teeth, and Ahsoka takes a relieved breath. She’s here, now, so they can’t send her home. And her excuse is valid enough--they won’t be able to verify it until after the mission, so… “Well, I gave you a specific order not to come!” and he stabs his finger threateningly at her.
She grins disarmingly. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from you, Master, it’s that following direct orders isn’t always the best way to solve a problem.”
Obi-Wan comes over, then, grinning. “I see Anakin’s new teaching method is do as I say, not as I do,” and he smiles warmly at her. “Welcome aboard.”
~~~
Rex feels shaky as a newborn fathier when awareness comes back, nearly falls stepping out, has to brace himself against the frame of one of the slabs of carbonite. Kriff , he doesn’t care for this feeling, all woozy and dizzy and like his exposed skin is too sensitive . He glances around, instinctively, sees no threats - just his Generals, his Commander, his vode , so he blinks hard, gives half an ear to the annoyed conversation from his Jedi, and tries to get the spots away from his vision.
Someone sets a light, sienna hand on his pauldron, and he makes himself straighten, gives them (her; his Commander) a grateful smile.
“You look really disoriented, Rex, you okay?”
Kriffing. Hells. She did not. “Commander!” he snaps, sharply, then quickly reins himself back in, although he can’t quite help the scowl that freezes onto his face. “Commander, I thought you weren’t coming.”
“So did Master Skywalker,” she says archly, eyes twinkling, like he’s supposed to find this amusing .
“ Haar’chak , sir,” he says feelingly. “You’re kidding .”
“What does that mean? You all say that a lot.”
Rex scowls harder, shoots Cody a disbelieving look; his ori’vod just looks distantly amused. “ Damn it , Commander Tano. You weren’t- All due respect, but you weren’t supposed to be here, for a reason .”
“Kix cleared me to come.”
“ The hells he did,” Rex snarls, doesn’t mean to exactly, it’s just he knows Kix and he knows Commander Tano and who does she think she’s kidding? “Sir-”
“ Ori’vod ,” Cody says mildly. “ Kaysh gaan .”
For kriff’s sake. Rex forgot.
“What’s that mean?” Commander Tano asks, so bright-eyed. Rex will never understand why Jedi get like this when they don’t know things.
He grunts a little, shrugs her hand off his pauldron, shakes his head. “Never mind, Commander.”
She pouts at him - the nerve of her, when she shouldn’t even be here . He glares at her, jams his helmet pointedly on his head. Kriffing hells, wasn’t this all bad enough when he still thought he wouldn’t have to worry about her? Now he’s gotta be keeping an eye on his barely-not-injured Commander, who definitely doesn’t have permission to be here.
~~~
Rex makes a point of not acknowledging her presence as they leave the ship behind for the nearest observation point, instead walking next to Cody. She trails behind the two of them, mostly amused, probably too pleased by Rex’s reaction--but honestly, so maybe he’s mad, but it’s the most emotion he’s given her since Mortis, and kriff but it feels nice to know he doesn’t totally hate her.
Because he wouldn’t be angry at her if he wasn’t concerned, right?
Unless he’s just… mad because she’s not competent enough, and her presence here will jeopardize the entire mission, which… shavit, she didn’t want to think about that, but now that the possibility’s entered her mind it won’t go away.
Kriff.
Anakin drops to his knees, pulls out his macrobinoculars, and starts scanning the prison tower, the walls. “I see our entry point,” he says, frowning.
“You were right.” Cody’s voice crackles through his helmet. “The wind conditions are too strong for jetpacks.”
“We’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way,” says Obi-Wan, snorting. “With ascension cables and a steel grip.”
“I don’t think so,” Anakin says.
“What do you mean?”
“Electromines. There’s no way to put a grappling hook at that height,” he says, and Rex swears under his breath, that haar’chak word again, drawing her attention to him.
She’d much rather look at him than listen to them talk about how they’re going to get up to the entry point. He kriffing has his kama on, obviously, why wouldn’t she want to look at him? They’re kriffing cool.
“I suppose that means we freeclimb it.” Rex sounds not at all pleased, and she grins.
Pats his pauldron lightly as she walks past him to investigate (lets her hand linger for just a second longer than necessary). “Oh, don’t worry, Rexter,” she says, shoots him a bright grin. “It’s rocky enough there’ll be plenty of handholds--it’ll be easy to climb.”
~~~
Kriff her. Rex scowls at her retreating back, because that’s easy for her to say, a Jedi and not lugging around armor and kama and a pack with supplies and a blaster rifle in it. And he doesn’t like the implication that he’s scared, because he’s not. He just- looks up at that damn cliff face, and maybe he isn’t exactly looking forward to it. Kark it.
Cody’s voice comes over their helmet feed, dry as dust. “Rex, ori’vod , for kriff’s sake sur’ar .”
“It’s not exactly easy , vod , I kriffing hate heights and you know it.”
“That’s not what I was talking about.”
Rex scowls and pushes forward to stand behind his General, ignores Cody. His vod needs to give him a break; he has this under control, he doesn’t need Cody lecturing him constantly.
“This is gonna be fun,” Fives says on comms, dryly.
Yeah. That was the word he was thinking of.
As he had expected, the climb is distinctly not fun . It’s not so bad at first, when a fall wouldn’t actually kill him and his hands aren’t tired and all his men and officers are moving fine, not struggling. As long as he doesn’t look down , as long as he doesn’t think , he’s more or less alright.
It’s when they get up among the electromines and Rex sees Commander Tano starting to slow (so that he starts catching up with her a bit) that it gets harder to ignore his anxiety; the wind grabs at anything it can reach, dragging against his kama , the edges of his armor. He wants to be done climbing but it feels like there’s very far yet to go.
Although when he looks down (mistake mistake mistake), he realizes they’ve climbed further, faster than he thought.
His Commander should not be climbing on her leg yet. He jams his hand into a crevice in the rock and hauls himself a few feet higher. “Kriffing heights,” he mutters, hears Charger laugh shortly. “It’s not funny, vod ,” he growls, shortly.
“It kind of is, sir,” Charger answers, and Rex spots the trooper over to his right, staring at him, probably grinning.
This is not funny . Kriffing Commander Tano’s probably amused too.
Kriffing Commander Tano shouldn’t be freeclimbing a kriffing rock face, but she just had to smuggle herself along.
So as they climb, he keeps an eye on her, or at least as much of one as he can without breaking his own concentration. She’s keeping up with them alright, although she’s slowed down enough that she’s closer to him now than she was to the Generals. She should have stayed back on Coruscant, hells.
Except she’d probably be alright now if it weren’t for him.
But it’s not his fault she’s here - he wishes he could yell at her about it like she was one of his younger vode , but she’s not, she’s his Commander. Doesn’t mean she isn’t being stupid.
They’re close - Kenobi’s nearly reached the ledge, makes it look so damn easy. Jedi , honestly - he and Skywalker don’t even have tabards this mission, which is kriffing stupid .
~~~
Ahsoka should not be doing this.
She knows that, very clearly, knows that her leg isn’t healed enough for this, that Kix will be furious, that she’s probably injuring herself--in her defense, she hadn’t known they’d be freeclimbing a karking cliff when she decided to join the mission. Er, when she was assigned to the mission. Right.
Her leg aches every time she tries to push herself up on it, meaning she’s climbing slower than half the vode, and she grits her teeth, grabs for the Force and suppresses the pain because she needs to get up there. Still, she grimaces as she climbs, demands more from her body. She has to get up there.
“It’s ray-shielded!” Master Obi-Wan is shouting down at Anakin, now, from his position just below the platform, and she makes a face. Kriff.
“That wasn’t in the plan!” Anakin snaps back, sounds strangely offended.
“Well, it’s in the plan now!”
There’s silence for a moment, then Ahsoka braces herself on her feet, wedges her toes deeper into the crevices she’s balanced on, digs the fingers of her left hand into her handhold and leans back, peering up, using her right hand to block the wind a bit. “There’s an opening up there!” she calls (almost swears as her fingers, cramped and shaking and scraped raw, palms bloody and clammy with sweat, crusted with gravel and dust, slip and she barely manages to catch herself).
“We know, Snips, it’s the ventilation ducts, but we can’t fit,” her Master says.
She frowns. “I think I could fit, I’m small enough.”
“We didn’t plan on Ahsoka being here,” Obi-Wan says, gives her a nod, which is enough for her.
So she grits her teeth and pushes, leaps several meters up the cliff with a Force-jump, catches herself on a protruding lip of rock with one hand and lets her body swing into the cliff face; balances there, precarious, for a moment, then gets her feet underneath her (and ow ow ow her leg hurts), wipes sweat off her forehead and out of her eyes (leaves behind a streak of dirt and blood), repeats the maneuver. A third jump gets her in position to jog up to the grating covering the duct, and she pulls it off, setting it down, and hesitates for a moment before worming her way inside.
It’s a tight fit.
Her breaths echo off the walls and she can barely see, and this is so much worse than sneaking through the vents in the Temple as a curious youngling. Those vents are at least big enough for her to crawl--this one is so narrow she has to shimmy along like an inchworm until she reaches a hole. By reaches, she means nearly falls through, because she doesn’t see it until she’s literally on top of it and it’s only quick reflexes and catching herself on the edge that keeps her from tipping headfirst onto the floor below.
There’s a couple droids marching around the corner, and she waits until they’ve disappeared before she lets herself fall, flips while in midair and lands on her feet, settles into a low combat stance (ignores the way her leg aches from the strain) for a few seconds before standing and hurrying to unlock the ray-shields. She walks to the edge of the platform (or, rather, limps, because she can’t quite manage to walk normally), says, “We’re clear,” and waits.
~~~
Between Ahsoka leaning off the cliff face, nearly slipping, and then jumping from ledge to ledge like she's not injured, Rex decides it will be better for his sanity if he just doesn't look. Better for his stomach, too; he's getting dizzy enough without picturing her plummeting off one of those stupid little ledges to the ground far, far below them.
Still, he looks up again in time to see her disappear into the ventilation shaft, which is partly a relief because at least she’s not jumping around on a kriffing cliff face anymore like a mesa goat. He doesn’t understand why his Jedi can’t just kriffing do things carefully .
He grumbles to himself as he climbs up closer to the ledge, underneath, and clings tight to the wall and waits.
It’s much harder just clinging on in stillness than it is climbing; the wind buffets against his side and back, strains his grip on the stone (which was already treacherous at best), and all his muscles are beginning to protest, loudly , at this exercise. It’s definitely best that they only brought the most elite of his men on this mission; it’s going to be a push, start to end.
He looks up just in time to see Commander Tano poke her head over the edge of the platform and call down, “We’re clear.”
Thank goodness she’s okay and he can get off this wall .
It’s the hardest climbing the last few feet, because he’s so close but he can’t afford to get sloppy here. But then Fives is holding out an arm to help him up, and Rex grips his bracer, lets Fives drag him the rest of the way onto the platform. And finally the ground beneath his feet is steady. He starts toward his Generals and Commander Tano, leaves Fives to help the last couple of his vode .
There’s a small clatter of rock, which Rex almost pays no mind too, except then he hears plastoid clack against stone and Fives shouts, “ Charger! ”
Rex surges forward to the very edge of the platform, just in time to see Charger hit an electromine midfall, arcing electricity turning his armor and the stone purple. Fives hurries up behind him, cursing on their helmet comms, and Rex swallows, turns around and grips his shoulder.
In the same moment, alarms start blaring, and General Kenobi twists to look at General Skywalker. “Well, they know we’re here,” he says, tightly.
Kriff.
Rex grits his teeth, heads for the doors after Commander Tano. They’re not even inside the place yet, haven’t even seen General Piell, and he’s already lost Charger. At this rate, he can’t help but doubt there will be any of his vode left at extraction.
~~~
Ahsoka takes a deep breath and offers Anakin a smile. “Told you I could handle myself,” she says, as brightly as she can (tries to ignore the way he glares). Master Obi-Wan snorts, at least, so she takes that as a sorta success.
They creep around a corner, following a patrol of droids, and Ahsoka attempts to walk normally, or as normally as possible as she leads the group around another corner. She knows she’s definitely limping now, but she can’t quite seem to stop-- her leg aches and she’s gritting her teeth trying to keep from making a noise.
Around this second corner there’s several cameras and the corners are covered with blaster turrets. “Take out their surveillance,” Anakin orders, and Fives, and Echo drop to a knee, take aim, fire.
The cameras go down in a burst of sparks, and immediately the turrets on the walls start firing. Rex and Cody pull out blasters and start firing, and Ahsoka snaps out her green ‘saber and starts deflecting blaster bolts back into the turrets, tries not to focus on the way Rex is firing one-two-three-four with both DC’s, leaps into the fray and starts slashing at the turrets.
Within seconds the corridor is clear, and she nods at Fives and Echo, slips out into the center of the junction and glances around, frowning. It shouldn’t be this calm.
And then a 212th clone shouts, “The walls are electrified! Go, go, go!”
They sprint down the corridor in the direction that’s away from the electricity, and Ahsoka stumbles, swearing, her leg aching-- and then there’s a hand firm on her arm, helping her up and along, and she leans into Rex’s side just enough to get her feet firm beneath her and let him yank her out of the way of the electricity, into the side hallway. And for a moment she thinks they’re free, they’re out, but then--
“Hotshot!”
It’s an awful, anguished cry, and Ahsoka staggers into Rex’s side and spins, in time to see Cody reaching a hand out, desperate, to the same clone who’d first alerted them to the walls--Hotshot--as he’s caught in the web of purple energy and thrown to the durasteel floor, convulsing. Purple sparks dance over his armor and Cody whimpers, “Hotshot,” again, faint, distant, barely there, and no. No, no, no.
“We must keep moving,” Obi-Wan says, and Ahsoka wants to scream.
No. How can they? They’re losing men at an awful rate, only been here for a little while and already they’ve lost two of the most elite of both battalions. Hells, Charger’s been part of the 501st since Ahsoka was assigned to Master Anakin, and she’s sure Hotshot’s been with the 212th for at least as long.
How are any of them going to be left by the time they make it to the rendezvous?
(She is not going to lose Rex, to lose her friends--Fives and Echo and Cody--for certain, but not Rex, they won’t take Rex from her. She’ll protect him. Even if he doesn’t want her to.)
~~~
Rex makes sure his Commander can walk fine on her own before moving closer to Cody as they march down the corridors - still on the helmet feed, he sighs, says, “Sorry, ori’vod .”
“ Nu kyr'adyc, shi taab'echaaj'la ,” Cody answers, with a note of bitterness.
Rex sighs again.
Not kriffing good.
They don’t meet much resistance in the short remaining distance to cell where, reportedly, General Piell’s being held - just a few more cameras and blaster turrets to shoot, nothing complicated for three Jedi and the best of 501st and 212th. They fan out down the hall outside the cell doors, and Rex nods to Fives and Echo - they take up positions on either side of the door, raise their blasters, and Rex glances at General Skywalker. His General waves a hand, and the light above the door’s keypad goes green.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Skywalker says, Fives gives him and Echo the hand signal for now , and Echo hits the button to open the door, the two of them twisting around the doorframe and into the cell, and there’s a brief but loud smattering of blasterfire before Rex follows them in, sees commando droids twisted and sparking, just an interrogator droid facing the Lannik Jedi hanging suspended in the middle of the cell; Rex lowers one blaster (feels Cody at his shoulder) fires and nails the droid in the middle of its head. It screams, which is always much more satisfying than when they don’t, and he strides the rest of the way into the cell, looking around for more resistance - but true to form, Echo and Fives were very thorough, and for now they’re fine.
“Secure the entrance!” Skywalker orders, and hurries over with his saber, slices General Piell free from his restraints. Kenobi doesn’t let the small, angry-looking Jedi fall; just lifts him down to the floor. Rex hopes he’s not too injured - having another battle-ready Jedi with them would be a distinct advantage.
“Master Piell, are you alright?” Kenobi asks.
Rex edges over to stand closer to Commander Tano, because she’s wobbling on that damn leg again. He wishes she hadn’t come, this is already so much .
“Obi-Wan,” the Jedi growls, with the voice of someone with not a lot of patience but a great deal of grit, “What took you so long?”
He can’t be that hurt, then.
Skywalker makes a face, and Rex huffs a little under his breath. “Like to see him do it better,” he says, hears Fives snort.
“At least your sense of humor is still intact,” General Skywalker says, helps General Piell stand up.
“It takes more than that to break me , young Skywalker,” Piell says dryly.
“So you have the coordinates for the Nexus Route?”
He kriffing better , Rex finds himself thinking. He didn’t come here to find out the General has no information after all. (Not that it was up to him, but still.)
“I got them alright,” Piell says, sounds a little offended that Skywalker even had to ask him - then he pauses. “Half of them, anyway.”
Haar’chak .
“My Captain’s got the other half. I erased the computers when we were boarded and had him memorize part of the intel. That way, if somehow I cracked, the information would be useless to them.” The small Jedi kicks dismissively at the head of the interrogator droid Rex shot.
Smart. Smart of him to do that. But a kriffing nuisance . Rex glances over at Commander Tano, finds she’s looking his way, and she shrugs a little. Like they needed to add more to the plan, but they don’t have options.
“Where’s your Captain?” Kenobi asks.
“Mm. Being held with the other officers, I assume.” Wonderful.
“We’re gonna need a new plan for getting out,” Skywalker says, wryly. Which General Skywalker never minds that sort of thing anyway, but Rex? Rex hates it.
If it were anyone other than his General suggesting a change in plans, he’d be very on edge. As it is, he trusts General Skywalker’s plans, for the most part, so he just shifts a little, looks over at Commander Tano again.
~~~
Rex stays right at her shoulder as they leave Master Piell’s cell behind, for which Ahsoka is grateful; her leg aches and she’s tired already, and they still have to rescue the rest of Master Piell’s troops--the one’s still alive, anyway.
Still, she walks on her own power through the corridors, behind Cody and another 212th clone, as they slip towards the cells where the clones should be being held. Around another corner, and there’s a strange heaviness in the air; the Force feels thick, dangerous, and she rowns, swallows. She doesn’t like this.
That’s when the commando droids, dangerous ones that move sharp and fluid and too-swift around the corner, and Obi-Wan ignites his lightsaber, settles into a combat stance and waits--there’s three droids. Shouldn’t be a problem, honestly, why isn’t Cody just shooting yet--
And then three more dart swift and sure around the corner they just passed, and Ahsoka spins (grits her teeth, grabs the Force, doesn’t let the pain affect her) and ignites her own green blade, at the same time as Anakin lights his blue one.
There’s a pause, for a moment, as the two sides observe each other, and then like they’ve been given a silent signal the commandos charge and then her men are firing and the corridor is a mess of blaster bolts and shrieking as the too-fast droids burst through the lines, slamming clones up against the walls and dodging bolts and it’s all she can do just to deflect. Much less deflect the bolts back at the droids who’d shot them.
If they’re going to get out of this one alive, it’s going to be hard.
She’s not paying enough attention, and so maybe that’s why it’s so much a surprise, when the commando droid suddenly launches itself at her, slams her back into the durasteel floor hard enough to knock the air from her lungs, her head hitting hard enough she sees stars flashing multicolored in her vision; she presses her lips together and swallows a cry of pain and moves to decapitate the thing, except--
Except its cold, clawed hands are grabbing her headtails and slamming them together, choking her, her throat blocked, and she can’t breathe, and no no no, she lets out a pained yelp and instinctively grabs at its arms (and for a moment there’s Dark and cold cruel and laughing along the edges of her thoughts, and she sees eyes like glowing red coals in a too-pale face, streaked with crimson like blood), because no, no, she can’t--she won’t--she please she doesn’t want to be here, please, please help, she can’t, it’s cold and there’s metal sharp against her neck, her throat, and she remembers hands holding her tight like she’s nothing, like she’s a toy, something to be used against her Master, and so no no no please, because she remembers this, she can’t let go, if she lets go she’ll fall and then he’ll come and she’s gone, she’s lost and alone, so so alone.
~~~
One of the commandos runs straight into Rex’s blaster as he pivots and fires, a lucky coincidence for him, not so much one for the droid, and he swears because that was close . He hates commandos - ducks under one’s swinging arm, drives his elbow into its metal torso and shoots it - hates dealing with them and their near-unpredictable fighting.
He shoots at another, misses, and then he hears a pained cry ( Ahsoka ) and twists, taking in metal hands locked around her throat and headtails, the droid pinning her to the floor, and he moves . Past Skywalker, who’s struggling with another droid - has to stop and shoot one that gets hold of Fives’ better blaster arm - around another vod in 212th orange. She hasn’t killed it, she’s not moving hardly at all, and Rex gets in close , sweeps out with one leg, knocks the thing off balance, off from directly on top of his Commander so he can’t make a mistake and shoot her , fires twice into the commando’s head. Leans over, grabs the droid by a leg and one arm, and hauls it off her, drops it unceremoniously on the floor.
She still looks terrified .
Rex crouches, puts his hand on her shoulder. “You good to go, sir?” he says, fires at a droid with his free hand.
“Yeah,” she says hoarsely. Nods.
Rex fits his arm behind her shoulders and helps her to her feet (and she struggles on her leg a little, and there are small cuts on her headtails, and he doesn’t want to let go of her to go back to the fight), waits to take his arm away until she has both her sabers up.
He stays next to her throughout what little of the fight is left, after Kenobi has sliced his saber neatly through the last of the commandos, because if she stumbles he’s not leaving it up to someone else to defend her.
“We need to keep moving,” Kenobi says, again, and Rex falls in step with his Commander, not even bothering to put his blasters away this time.
~~~
Ahsoka is tired.
This is probably one of the hardest missions she’s ever been on; Mortis was tough, yes, but nothing like this. Of course, she’s really not supposed to be here, which… honestly, there’s probably a reason for that, and it’s got something to do with still seriously injured. And also Padawan.
Both of which piss her off.
She’s managing to stay semi-steady now, at least, but she really wishes Rex wouldn’t have let go of her, because she feels so much steadier when he’s holding onto her. Which maybe is a bad thing, but she can’t help it--he’s safety and strength and that helps.
“We need to keep moving,” Obi-Wan says, and Ahsoka sighs and falls in next to Rex, who thankfully stays right beside her, though he’s still not looking at her even, and kriff but she wishes he’d talk to her. Say something. Anything. She just wants to hear his voice.
They take maybe five steps down the corridor and then there’s a whine that feels like it’s worming its way inside her head, like her montrals are about to shatter into a thousand shards of glass, and she claps her hands over her montrals instinctively, swallows a whimper of pain.
And then suddenly her sabers are flying up to the ceiling, all their weapons are, and then--
“Anakin!” Obi-Wan shouts, and she swears, because Anakin’s mech hand is dragging him up to the ceiling, and there’s more of those kriffing commando droids appearing out of nowhere, and no, shit, no. This isn’t good.
And then there’s a surge of violet electricity and Anakin lets out a rough, scratchy yelp, and she stares up at him, hands still pressed to her montrals (though it’s not doing much good). “Master!”
“You fools!” echoes from the nearest surveillance camera. “I hope you enjoyed your reunion with your fellow Jedi, because you’re going to be my guests for a very long time!”
~~~
There are more kriffing commando droids, boxing them in, just four this time, and but they have them fairly well covered, and Rex shifts so he’s partly in front of Commander Tano. Kenobi and General Piell nod at each other, then quickly push outward - but the commandos only skid back a few feet before holding.
“They’re magnetized!” Kenobi warns, helpfully, as the droids start shooting , and redoubles his efforts. Rex’s Commander slides past him, pushes hard at the droids as well, fierce and intense and muscles taut although she isn’t actually pushing anything, and then Fives strides in amongst the struggling droids and starts punching and Rex realizes maybe he should have been doing the same thing already. He presses forward, slams a fist into a commando’s neck joint - above them, there’s a crackle of electricity and General Skywalker yells, harsh.
Rex twists, grabs a droid that’s straining to escape Commander Tano’s Force push, and flicks his vibroblade out of his gauntlet to stab the clanker through its faceplate. It sputters, doesn’t quite deactivate, so he drags the blade up with a screech of metal until it shuts off, magnetic feet suddenly detaching from the floor. The droid flies backward under the Force of his Commander’s push, and Rex moves on to the next just as the sounds of electricity and the awful shrieking sound cut off - and their blasters fall back to the ground, and the Jedi’s sabers. Kenobi and Commander Tano both catch theirs, and Rex has never been so relieved to hear the sound of a saber igniting in his life .
The remaining droids are dispatched in seconds, and Echo goes to help General Skywalker (who had fallen to the floor and lain there prone for a moment, not good). “Are you alright, sir?” his vod’ika says.
“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” Skywalker says, breathless.
He takes off running down the corridor, Rex’s vode and Commander Tano following him, and Rex slows, checks behind them one more time, and then twists to look up at the surveillance camera. Damn this place, damn the fact they can see everything . He sneers behind his helmet, takes deliberate aim, and shoots out the camera.
~~~
Click hunches over his stomach and tries not to look cowed, or afraid.
Yes, so he’s just a technician; yeah, he doesn’t have armor on (but neither do his brothers now). But he’s still a clone soldier of the 431st battalion (no matter that the battalion is… almost gone, now), and he is not afraid. He won’t be.
He refuses to look at Captain Tarkin--he isn’t sure why his battalion had to get stuck with one of the few GAR officers who isn’t a clone, but he doesn’t like it. General Piell never should’ve given the half of the coordinates to Tarkin. The karking asshole Captain doesn’t even trust the Jedi! And the only reason he’s a kriffing Captain is because he’s not vode. He’s not a brother, so he gets to have a damn rank.
There are a lot of things about that that Click doesn’t like.
But right now, Tarkin is the only hope they have of escape. Click isn’t a fool, he knows the Republic would gladly abandon them to the Citadel, if General Piell had all the intel. So the fact that Tarkin has it is good, that means the Jedi rescue team (if there is one) will come for them. Hopefully. Because at least they know the intel will be useless without Tarkin.
Karkin’ Tarkin.
Heh, Click likes that. He just might have to use that more often. Not out loud, of course not, he’s not kriffing jare’la, but… he’ll have to tell Alpha and Beta about that one.
Speaking of Alpha and Beta…
Click looks over at his fellow vode, frowns a bit. Both of them are in blacks only, crumpled over--Alpha is worse. Alpha, he thinks, got hit pretty bad in the side, and of course the droids--and Commander Sobec, that miserable, duraa’la, rat-faced, bastard shabuir--had to have their fun with their prisoners, with their new clone toys, and Click burns at the memory of electrostaffs jammed into Alpha’s burnt, bloody side, remembers the sound of his vode screaming in agony (Alpha from the pain, Beta because his ori’vod). At least both he and Beta only got minimal shock treatment, same with Lieutenant Hang-up--and of-kriffing-course Tarkin didn’t get any at all. Why would he? He’s a damn human, of course he wouldn’t. And besides, it’s not like they expect him to have the intel.
“I hear something,” one of the commandos says, suddenly, slinks up to the door, and Click tries not to swear. Great. Just what they need.
Alpha whimpers faintly, hunches over himself more, and Beta hisses protectively, puts a hand on Alpha’s shoulder, wraps one arm around his ori’vod’s chest and pulls him close. Click swallows, looks away from the brothers, finds Hang-up’s eyes. The two of them silently, without discussion, move to cover their vod’ike--
And then there’s the distinctive hum of a lightsaber, and a glowing blue blade stabs through the door to the cell, into and through the commando’s head.
Half a second later, the door hisses open and a young Togrutan Jedi swings through, slams her feet into the remaining commando’s head, knocking it hard to the floor, and lands on top of it, pulling out a short yellow ‘saber and stabbing it home into its head. She climbs almost immediately back to her feet, but she’s limping, and Click frowns. Pushes himself slowly to his feet, helps Hang-up and Beta stand as well, lets Alpha stay down. Ignores Karkin’ Tarkin. The damn Captain can stand up by himself. He’s not injured at all.
~~~
Cody goes over to the clone officer (Rex thinks his vod knows him); Rex himself is more concerned about the three regular troopers, especially the one that’s folded over himself, pressing his fingers against his side. He thinks the technician looks the most steady, so he nods to him, says, “What’s your name, trooper?”
“Click, sir,” answers the technician, and he looks to be about to try to come to some kind of attention, so Rex waves his hand like stand down .
“I’m Captain Rex,” he says, glancing over at the other two vode . His Commander limps up next to him ( haar’chak ), and he nods towards her, “and this is Commander Tano. What about you two, what are your names?”
“I’m Beta,” says the one who’s actually on his feet. He sounds worried. “This is Alpha.”
Alpha doesn’t look good, and Rex wishes Kix were here, but that can’t be helped. Risking their senior medic on a mission like this would have been unwise. “Can you all walk? You shouldn’t have to fight- but I need you to be able to move.”
Beta looks at Alpha, says, “I don’t think-” right as Alpha says, “Yes,” with a strained note to his voice.
Cody speaks on his helmet feed, says, “I’m getting them out, we’ll guard them, but we have to be moving.”
“Copy that.” Rex switches his helmet feed off, nods to Beta. “I’m sorry, but you need to move. We don’t have a lot of options here.” Alpha tries to struggle to his feet by himself, and Rex grimaces, but Beta grabs Alpha’s arm and supports him.
Good.
“Click,” Rex says, quickly touching his vod’s shoulder (and little gods he wishes they had armor, or blasters, or something; as it is this is going to be a huge risk), “Go with Commander Cody and your officer, we’ll be out shortly.” Because the Captain (GAR high brass, apparently, the sort that joined up and immediately got handed a rank and a squad and the authority to send men to die with impunity) is talking to his Generals, chin up, haughty and self-important somehow even though he’s just been rescued from a prison cell.
He strides over to them, slightly behind the Captain, and his Commander limps after him; he needs to either give her more support or find a way to keep her off that leg so much. Damn it all.
Your fault .
Not now.
“Please tell me you have a plan as to how to get us out of here?” the Captain is saying, and gods , Rex doesn’t even like his ridiculous voice.
But of course, it doesn’t matter what he thinks of the GAR officers as long as everything works like it’s supposed to and he does what he needs to and the Captain does what he should. He settles his arms behind his back in casual parade rest, sighs.
He can tell his Commander is… less patient with the Captain, and for that matter, so are his Generals. Skywalker in particular.
“We do, actually,” General Skywalker says, a little huffily. “A little thanks would be nice, Captain Tarkin.”
Damn straight. Rex lost two vode trying to get this- di’kut out of here. Not that Captain Tarkin will probably care. Most non-clone officers don’t.
~~~
Ahsoka tilts her head to one side, observing Captain Tarkin. He’s, from what she can tell, stuffy, uptight, and utterly unconcerned about the lives of his clones. No good Captain would ever be so… so stupid, so wasteful.
She doesn’t like him.
Likes him even less when he doesn’t even bother to thank her Master for the help.
“We should split up,” Obi-Wan says, and Ahsoka agrees, though her leg is sore and she’s beginning to wish she hadn’t come along after all.
Captain Tarkin frowns, haughty. “Shouldn’t we stick together? There is strength in numbers, after all.”
“Sounds like Separatist mentality,” Ahsoka mutters under her breath, and Rex snorts.
“A stronger force would have a better chance of protecting the information,” Tarkin tries, and Obi-Wan just shakes his head.
“Not in this situation.”
“Obi-Wan has a point,” Master Piell says, casually. “I’ll go with him. You go with Skywalker.”
“I’ll take what’s left of my men and set a diversion,” Obi-Wan says. “Anakin, you take the 501st and the injured out through the tunnels--it should be safer that way.”
“Got it,” Anakin says. “I’ll have Artoo take the shuttle to pick you up at the landing pad, then come back and get us off the fuel line.”
“Sounds like a plan. Do try to be on time,” Obi-Wan says, and then he’s off.