Chapter Text
"Kriff!” Rex swore, pausing in his excavations as he saw a familiar helmet. “Jesse, hold on, I’m coming!”
The silence ate away at his mind, bringing fresh fear into him. It was one thing to go into this knowing none of the vode would have been likely to survive, it was a completely different thing to see his vod , his Jesse , lying on the ground, trapped by so much durasteel. He had already failed his brothers before, he couldn’t-
“Rex, Rex you need to breathe,” He felt a hand on his shoulder, resting between the plastoid plates. “We have to stay calm.”
“Ahsoka, it’s Jesse-”
“I know, and I think,” She paused and gave the look he had come to realize as Ahsoka noticing she couldn’t do something she used to do. “I think he might be alive.”
Rex stared down at the familiar painted helmet in dismay. Their time limit was ticking away. Any hour now troops would find them. And minute now they could be under attack again. He didn’t much like their chances against a destroyer, not with their dingy ship.
“We have to get him out, we have to try.” His voice broke on the last word, and Rex hated how his hands shook, how they never stopped shaking these days. He closed his eyes, wishing things were different. Wishing he had ignored the holo call, wishing Ahsoka hadn’t cut herself off from the Force. Hell, wishing he had listened to Fives, really believed him.
“Rex,” Ahsoka’s voice was soothing, a cool cloth on a fevered forehead. He realized she hadn’t yet moved her hand. He stood up and rolled his shoulders, trying to focus on getting his brother out.
“The question is, how do we get him out without hurting him more?” Rex analyzed the towers of broken metal surrounding them like vultures. “All these sharp edges are just waiting for a reason to impale something.”
“We have to find something we can use to keep whatever falls from hitting him, I think I have just the thing,” She leapt away from Rex to one of the ships under repair. “If I can modify a cruiser’s protective shields to a much smaller size...I might just be able to-” The words cut off as she dipped into the ship. As he listened to the rummaging around, Rex bent down towards Jesse.
“Brother, if you’re in there, I won’t leave you.” He surveyed the area again. The huge sheet lying on top of him would need to be leveraged away without being pushed into him, he’d need a beam of some sort.
By the time Ahsoka was satisfied with her shield generator, Rex had set up the rest of the things they would need. Ahsoka powered up the device, and after a few hair-raising moments they managed to drag Jesse’s body free from the wreckage.
Rex could only stand breathlessly as Ahsoka pulled off his helmet to check for a pulse. She looked up and nodded, and Rex could move again. Together they carried him over to their impromptu medical station, already thinking about the next step.
“Now I’m no medic, but looks like his left arm is broken, or fractured at least,” Rex examined as much as he could without removing the armour. “And then of course, there’s the…”
“We need to make sure he comes out of the surgery okay, we’ll have to tend his other wounds first,” Ahsoka looked just as wary as he felt as she reached into the bin of bacta patches. “I say we patch him up and then...hope the Force guides us.”
“Could really use Kix right about now. I think I remember him telling us not to remove armour until we’re on the ship, something about providing support for hidden injuries?” His wry smile didn’t take away any of the pain lacing his heart. Of course, Rex missed all his fallen brothers, but Kix was special. And he never would have given up on Jesse.
The two moved as fast as they could, their bodies reacting slower after days of locating and burying all the vode they could find. So far, Jesse was the only survivor. Other than Rex.
Once they had done all they could, every visible injury covered in bacta, they stepped back and looked at each other, faces tight and brows pulled together. A string of high pitched beeps and whistles cut through their apprehension as R4-H1 raced towards them, spewing snow and ice behind him.
“Of course we didn’t start without you, how would we program the system?” Ahsoka sadly smiled down at the little droid. “Speaking of, Rahi, can you boot it up? I don’t think we can afford to wait much longer. Someone is going to come looking soon.” She startled and looked at Rex as R4 hooked up to the luckily salvaged machine.
“Rex, I know we didn’t find everyone, I don’t want to leave them behind, but-”
“I get it, kid. I-” His voice broke again, so he took a deep breath before continuing on. “We need to be lightyears away before they come looking for us.”
Ahsoka walked over and grabbed his still-shaking fists. Looking in her eyes, all he could see was the fear on her face, the fear of him as he pulled his weapons on her.
Rex closed his eyes and tried to do that breathing exercise Cody was always trying to get him to do. Some Jedi thing he had learned from Kenobi, no doubt. Rex blinked his eyes open when he felt his vod’ika pull away. She had moved to stand by Jesse, her hands already inspecting the bandage on his skull. Had it been so long already?
He joined her and looked down at his vod stiffly. It felt like a lifetime before he opened his eyes, before he realized where he was, and the reality of their situation sunk in.
“Commander!” Jesse tried to pull away, but he was too weak from the, well, the everything that had happened the past two days to get far. “Commander, I’m-”
“Don’t you dare apologize, Jesse. That wasn’t you,” Rex offered a sympathetic glance to his brother on the table. “Now, how are you feeling? Do you think you can walk?”
“Y-yeah, commander, I can walk.”
Rex met Ahsoka’s eyes, and they came to the same realization.
“We have to go now. There’s no way anyone else survived for this long.”
Jesse grabbed Rex’s offered arm and stood on wobbly legs. Rex brought a shoulder up under Jesse’s arm to support his weight. He turned them to look at the long row of helmets sitting on pikes, and could feel Jesse sag.
“Rex,” He closed his eyes and paused. Figuring he’d want his helmet, Rex gestured toward it, hoping Ahsoka would get the message. She did. She plucked it off the ground and gently bumped it against the worn out troopers chest plate.
Jesse opened his eyes and looked down for a long moment before steeling himself.
“Commander, captain, I’d like it to remain here, with our brothers,” He exchanged a look with Rex. “That helmet isn’t me, not anymore.”
Eyes brimming with tears, Rex watched as Ahsoka ran out to the line and added Jesse’s bucket to the others. Now the collection was complete.
Rex blinked as Ahsoka did something unexpected: she dropped one of her sabers. She braced her shoulders, and started heading back to them. Rex flashed her what he hoped was a supportive smile.
Rahi bumped his legs and let out a coon.
“I’m okay, little buddy. Now let’s get back to the ship,” The motley crew slowly crept toward the waiting modified freighter, the air as heavy as the Naboo jungles between them.
Rahi sped ahead of them to start the engines while they climbed the ramp. The three gave one last look over the tragic scene ahead of them.
“We, we buried as many of the vode as we could,” Ahsoka spoke up, montrals twitching slightly to show her unease. Rex knew she wanted to do more, because he too wanted to do more. They kept watching as the ramp slowly shut, cutting them off.
Little did they know this freighter would be their home for the next three years.