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They’d almost made it to the Y-wing. They’d been so close! And while Ahsoka had been shot a few times, and Rex as well, it was a single shot that put him out of commission. Jesse had blasted him in the back as he’d tried to get the Y-wing up and running, and he’d fallen the eight feet to the reinforced durasteel deck. As Ahsoka ran to help him, she pushed out with the Force, shoving a great many of the troopers away to get enough space to somehow haul Rex into the back of the ship.
That was when one of the troopers fired the missile. Ahsoka had sensed it coming before it had even been fired, so that had given her a few precious seconds to use the Force to throw Rex out of the way, and then she herself jumped. When the Y-wing blew up, debris fell around them, but she’d gotten them a safe enough distance away.
Using the smoke and fire as cover, Ahsoka got to her feet, barely able to feel her own injuries, and crouched low to the deck, racing towards Rex.
No time to check if he was still alive.
Jesse ordered his troops to fire.
Ahsoka grabbed Rex by both wrists, and started dragging him out of there as fast as she could. A shot nearly hit her, and she had to drop Rex to take her shoto from her belt. Using the short lightsaber, she deflected the blasts, making sure they went upwards instead of into the clones that had been her soldiers, her friends.
The deflection of the heavy fire hitting the hull of the above the bay doors caused enough damage to rip into the durasteel. Sensing where it was weakest, an idea quickly coming to her, Ahsoka threw her shoto and reached out her hand to push. Her lightsaber went flying up into the durasteel close by, and then she shoved her hand horizontally. The lightsaber pushed through the durasteel, burning a path.
The loud screech of metal hit her, and a large section of the hull came loose. She pulled her shoto back to her hand, and then she was on the move again as tons of durasteel crashed to the deck.
She pulled Rex down stretches of passageways, and at this point, only fear and adrenaline kept her going.
Please be alive, she willed. Please be alive.
Finally, Ahsoka found a storage compartment that was out of the way of the hanger, and she hauled herself and Rex inside. She used her lightsaber to bust the lock, which… essentially locked them in as well, but there wasn’t much else she could do.
I’ll think of something. I have to.
The battleship was going down, and that Y-wing had been their last hope of escaping, yet Ahsoka didn’t sense her own death approaching. Somehow, she’d get off this burning, ripping piece of junk.
But would Rex?
Sealed safely inside, she went to Rex’s side, and she felt for a pulse.
Blast, if only she had a medical scanner. But then what would she do? She didn’t have supplies, and her training in field medicine hadn’t encompassed injuries so severe.
“Rex? Rex!” she cried upon finding a pulse.
His body was shuddering, and she rolled him onto his side, off of the blast wound. She tried to assess it, and saw that plastoid had melted into his skin, and there was a deeper wound inside that area. She tried reaching out with the Force to try and get a feel of the full scope of the damage, but she was stopped as his hand gripped her wrist.
Ahsoka nearly jumped. In fact, tingles of adrenaline shot through her in painful bursts.
“Rex!”
He groaned, and then murmured, “Hi… Commander.”
“Rex, you got hit bad, I don’t—I don’t know what I can do.”
“Don’t… worry about it.”
“Don’t worry about it? What do you mean? You’re hurt, and we’re—we’re…” Finally, things slowed down, even as impending doom seemed to fall fast upon them. Ahsoka looked about the compartment they were trapped in. The ship shuddered. Tears blurred her vision and she let out a long breath. “We’re going to die,” she muttered.
“Of course not, Commander.”
“Rex, you’re badly hurt.”
“I know. That’s why I need you to leave me.”
“What?” she all but shouted, reaching out for his face. It was warm, too warm, and covered in sweat. “No, I can’t leave you! You’ve helped me so much, and kept me safe, and—and… you don’t even have the chip anymore. You’re still you.”
“And as me… Commander, I’d like to make the choice… to give one last stand.”
“Then I’ll stay with you,” Ahsoka argued, ignoring the tears trailing down her face and dripping to the deck.
Rex shook his head, but then grunted, and screamed. He buried his scream against his forearm, and Ahsoka let loose a sob.
He heaved out, “See… see if you can… get me situated in a seat, or maybe make me a crutch. I’ll… I’ll hold them off while you run.”
“They don’t even know where we are yet.”
“They will. Trust me. Those men are well trained, and they know this ship like the back of their hands. I’m… I’m assuming… the compartment we’re in is still close to the hanger.”
Ahsoka held back another sob, and the sound instead came out as a strangled whimper. Rex was right. She hadn’t been able to take him very far. Even now, her injuries were beginning to burn and throb, and sharp pain was traveling through her limbs to the center of her body.
“I’ll—I’ll… I’ll stay with you!” she told him, voice panicked, desperate.
No, no, no, she couldn’t lose Rex today. She couldn’t!
She’d lost Anakin, and all those men were just as doomed as she was. If she could save Rex, save the trooper who was still himself, then if she survived, she’d still have a reason to live. Just to save one person.
Rex gripped her. “Commander… no.”
“Rex, please.”
“Get me up, and into the passageway. There’s…” Rex coughed and grunted. Blood came up on his lips. The ship shuddered and Ahsoka nearly fell onto her captain. “There’s no time to argue.”
Ahsoka’s heart seemed to stop beating for a few precious moments. He was right.
“Let me do this,” he went on. “F-for you, Commander.”
Ahsoka nodded, and then she got up, and got to work. There wasn’t much time, but using her lightsaber, she was able to get him a makeshift crutch. And she cut a hole through the bulkhead, back out into the passageway.
Rex tore off a strip of his armor by the straps with his teeth and put it into his mouth as she picked him up and carried him out. He bit down on the plastoid, and screamed as she moved him. Heart in her throat, she helped him push himself up against the wall. She had her hands out in case he collapsed on her. The plastoid he’d used as a gag fell to the deck.
“You’re sure you’re alright?” she asked as she put one of his blasters into his hand.
“No, but that’s part of the job, isn’t it, Commander? It was an honor serving you.”
“Oh Rex… the honor was mine.”
She pressed her forehead to his in a quick goodbye, hearing footsteps coming down the passageway.
“You’ll be remembered,” she promised.
“Thank the Force,” he joked, voice gruff with pain. “Now get out of here. No… no point in us… both… dying.”
“Thank you, Captain.”
“And you… Commander.”
Rex gave her a fond smile, one that Ahsoka forced herself to return despite feeling like her very physical being was getting torn apart.
A blast was fired near her head, just over her montrals, and then she was running. Running away from a true friend, someone she would’ve died for, and someone who she’d tried so hard to save. And she headed for the bridge, knowing that the enclosed area with reinforced durasteel and transparisteel was now her best bet of survival for when this ship crashed. She’d hold out in one of the lower areas of the bridge, and hold together what she could with the Force.
Ahsoka had to live now. She had to live for Rex.
As she ran, tears running down her face, she heard Rex’s dying scream.