Work Text:
The proximity alert at Luke’s Jedi school chimed pleasantly. Rex put down his mug on his desk. Luke insisted on keeping the smooth ring of bells instead of a blaring security klaxon. He told Rex some of the kids training at the school came from traumatic pasts and an alarm like that could bring up memories that might set them off for days.
“Besides,” Luke finished with a sunny smile. “We only ever get friendly visitors. The Force would tell me before an alarm if something was wrong.”
Rex had every faith in Luke’s Force abilities, but at the moment, Luke was off in the woods behind the school doing mystic crap. So, Rex double checked he had his blaster and made his way to the shoddy landing platform.
He shaded his eyes against the sun. A flash of dark silver dipped down towards them. Rex breathed a sigh of relief. He recognised that worn out clanker. Din was back. The Mandalorain council had requested him for a short meeting on their mysterious space station headquarters. Rex had offered to go with Din, but for the single day trip Din decided he didn’t need an honour guard.
Rex blinked against the dust and leaves kicked up by the descending ship. The craft teetered slightly. Rex frowned. Din had a steady hand at landing. The landing gear must have stuck again. Din really needed to invest in some upgrades. Rex shook his head. Din trusted exactly one mechanic in the galaxy, and she couldn’t get the parts he needed on Tatooine.
The ship set down with a thud that rattled Rex’s boots. He walked to the side of the ship. The ramp didn’t immediately lower. Rex waited a beat. Nothing. Rex hammered his fist against the ship’s hull.
“Come on, Mand’alor. No sulking allowed. Bo Katan can’t hurt you here.”
The ramp dropped with a creak.
“Atta boy,” Rex teased.
The dark interior of the ship did not reveal Din. Rex waited a beat. A bad feeling crept over his skin.
Din appeared framed in the doorway. Rex shook aside the creeping feeling.
“What’s the hold up?” Rex asked. “Your Little Grub missed you. Cried his eyes out all last night.”
Din took a single step onto the ramp. He swayed. Rex’s heart leaped into his throat. Din listed to one side. He wobbled and crashed to the ground.
Rex was already running up the ramp to Din’s side. He rolled Din onto his back. Din didn’t react. His helmet tipped listlessly. Rex couldn’t see any blood at first glance. He ran an unpracticed hand over the soft places between Din’s armor plates, looking for injuries. He found nothing.
Rex’s hands shook. He wanted to yank off Din’s helmet and slap his face until Din woke up. Kark, where was Kix when you needed him?
Rex grabbed the comm on his belt. “Cody! Meet me in the med bay. Din’s hurt. And see if you can contact Luke.”
“Got it,” Cody’s response crackled over the radio.
Rex lifted Din’s arm over his shoulder. He stood. “Holy kriff, you’re heavy,” he wheezed.
Rex slapped a hand against the ship’s panel to close up the ramp. He shifted Din’s bulky weight and shuffled them towards the school building. The height difference between Rex and Din had never really registered until now. Din’s helmet kept thudding against the top of Rex’s head. Sweat ran in rivulets down Rex’s face. Every step carrying Din’s armor-clad body felt like a herculean effort.
Rex dragged Din into the white tiled med bay. Cody had the cot prepped. Rex dumped Din’s body onto the bed. Rex couldn’t stifle the groan as his muscles protested their rough treatment.
“What happened?” Cody demanded. He had bacta patches spread over the counter beside the cot and a whole med kit open on the exam table.
“I don’t know,” Rex shook his head. “He just keeled over.”
Rex started unbuckling Din’s chest plate. “Help me,” Rex said. “We gotta figure out what’s wrong with him.”
Cody helped Rex wrestle off pauldrons, wrist guards, and boots until Din was down to his flight suit. There were no rips in the suit, no blood, no other markings of injury.
Cody reached for the flight suit’s fastening at Din’s throat. Rex caught his wrist. “Don’t.”
Cody’s face clouded over. “It might be internal bleeding.”
“I know,” Rex answered. His heart lodged in his windpipe. “But we can’t. It’s against his code.”
They’d already stretched Din’s code to breaking by removing the beskar. Rex would not shatter any more of Din’s barriers.
“What are we supposed to do?” Cody growled. “He might die, and we don’t know what’s wrong.”
“Where’s R2-D2?” Rex asked. Cody shot him an incredulous look. “Din told me droids don’t count.”
Cody tossed his hands in the air. “Droids don’t count. Fine. Whatever. I’ll find the bot.”
“Cody,” Rex called as Cody stomped from the room. “Did you talk to Luke?”
“He’s on his way back,” Cody confirmed. The door shut behind him.
Rex slumped his back against the wall. He stared down at Din’s slowly rising chest. He hadn’t moved once since his collapse. What could have caused the sudden loss of consciousness if not a wound?
Rex knew one person who might have answers. He punched the number into his comm with shaking hands.
The blue holo image flickered to life. A woman with a scowl answered. “This is Bo Katan of Clan Kryze.”
“What happened at your little council session?” Rex demanded.
Bo Katan’s eyebrow raised. “Mandalorian policy debates are no concern of yours, clone.”
“It’s my concern,” Rex ground between his teeth. “When the Mand’alor returns unconscious.”
Bo Katan’s eyes widened comically. Rex vaguely thought she looked like the owl eyes on her helmet. “What happened?”
“I asked you first,” Rex snapped. “He’s not injured, but he won’t wake up. Whatever’s causing this happened while he was with you.”
Bo Katan’s flickering blue face smoothed into a scowl. “I don’t like what you’re insinuating.”
“If this is some power play, Kryze, I swear to the Maker I will tear you apart.” Rex threatened. She didn’t immediately answer. Rex’s fingers tightened on his comm until the metal creaked.
“What you’re describing sounds like poison,” Bo Katan countered. “That’s the coward’s weapon. Not a Mandalorian’s.”
“Check your court,” Rex advised. “You’ve got a traitor.”
“Those are strong words,” Bo Katan answered. “If you were here, I’d challenge your honour in battle for making such a claim.”
If she wasn’t going to be helpful, then Rex had no use for Bo Katan. Rex hung up on her.
The door slammed open. Rex leaped in the air.
Luke came bursting in with R2-D2 in tow. “Is he okay? Is he breathing?” Luke demanded.
“Breathing, and steady heartrate,” Rex confirmed. “I can’t tell anything else right now.”
“Right,” Luke nodded and spun on his heel. “R2, get to work. Fix this man.”
Rex hiked out of the room after Luke. He shut the door softly behind him. “R2 knows what he’s doing, right?”
“Oh sure,” Luke nodded. “Just make sure to listen for chainsaw noises, he gets excited.”
Rex’s brain short circuited.
Luke’s smile faltered. “That was a joke. I’m sorry.”
“No,” Rex scrubbed a hand over his face. “It’s okay. I’m just worried.”
Luke leaned against the wall. “I sent Cody to get the med kit from my X-wing. It has bacta for intravenous intake in case we need it.”
Maker, Rex hoped not. He buried his face in his hands. How could this happen? Rex took a breath and reassessed. Rex had assumed Din was injured, but maybe he was sick? Bo Katan said poison sounded likely. Din had been fine when he left the Mandalorian council, or else Bo Katan wouldn’t have let him leave. So whatever happened had to have happened during the flight to Yavin IV.
“How’s he doing R2?” Luke asked into his comm. A binary chirp came back.
Rex raised an eyebrow.
“He’s not finding any at the surface level,” Luke reported. “R2 is going to run some scans.”
Scans might be too late. If this was poison, it probably worked fast. They needed to know what Din had been dosed with, now.
“I’ll be back,” Rex told Luke. He jogged through the halls and out into the sunshine. Din’s ship sat where he’d precariously landed it. Rex slapped the ramp’s control panel. The creaky ramp took too long to descend. Rex bounced on the balls of his feet while it lowered.
Rex raced up the ramp and went straight to the cockpit. Din always stayed up there during short flights. He didn’t trust his autopilot enough. Rex didn’t know what he should look for as he cast about the controls and ran a hand over the pilot’s chair. He searched for anything out of place. Rex half wished for an overturned glass of water spilled over the floor, or some similarly obvious clue of poisoning. Maybe an intruder in the form of a venomous toad. He found nothing.
A headache started pinching at Rex’s temples. Some sign of what had happened to Din had to exist on the ship. Rex just had to find it. Rex headed down the ladder to Din’s personal spaces. The musty smell when he opened the panel to the sleeping quarters said Din hadn’t used the bunk recently. The fresher revealed no suspicious vials or nefarious items.
Rex’s head started to feel like someone squeezing his skull. He pushed on to the tiny shelf of rations. Nothing seemed out of place. No half-opened rations, or new foodstuffs filled the shelves. Rex spun in a circle. The room kept spinning. Rex put a hand out to steady himself. He knocked the packs of rations onto the floor. Rex stared down at the bright wrappers. That wasn’t good. Something tickled the back of his mind. A bad feeling crept up his spine.
Rex needed to get off the ship. Something bad was on the ship. Rex couldn’t think what, but he knew he had to get off the ship.
The ground under Rex’s feet tipped. He stumbled. The walls bent and swayed like waves on the ocean. Rex’s head pounded. He reached for his comm as he tripped towards the ramp.
“Cody, I might need a hand.” Rex found himself surprised by the steadiness of his voice.
“You get lost?” Cody snapped back.
“Getting dizzy,” Rex slurred. Oh, there it was. That was the thick tongue he’d expected.
Rex’s shoulder bumped into the doorway. The ramp was right there. It rippled like a flag in the wind. He put a foot carefully in front of the other. The metal under his boot held. Rex took another step.
A pair of hands gripped Rex’s biceps. He lifted his face. His head felt so heavy.
“Rex, what happened?” Cody sounded panicked. That wasn’t good. Cody needed to relax. Rex tried to pat his brother on the head. He missed and almost smacked Cody’s nose.
“Rex, focus,” Cody ordered.
Right. He had something to tell Cody. Something important. What was it?
“Don’t go on the ship,” Rex blurted out.
Cody looked over Rex’s shoulder. Rex twisted his brother’s sleeve in his grip. “Don’t go on the ship,” he pleaded.
“Okay,” Cody agreed. He looked pale.
Rex nodded. That’s all he needed. Needed a breath. Air. The air outside the ship smelled sweet. It cleared the pounding from his head.
“Din?” Rex asked. “Is he okay?”
Cody shrugged. “R2’s working on it.”
“Air,” Rex said. “He needs air.”
“Okay,” Cody placated. Rex shook his head. Cody didn’t understand. Rex knew the problem. The problem was air. Rex swatted Cody’s hands off of him. He got to his feet with only minimal swaying. Rex headed towards the med bay. Cody followed at Rex’s elbow, complaining that he should really sit down.
Rex startled Luke by pushing past him in the hallway and pounding a fist on the door. “R2,” Rex yelled. “Give Din oxygen. He’s got poison in his lungs.”
A beep echoed through the door and on Luke’s comm.
Luke interpreted. “The scans R2 ran found signs of carbon monoxide poisoning.” Luke looked bewildered at Rex. “How did you know?”
Rex turned to Cody. “Remember the broken fuel line?” Rex asked. “It’s been completely kriffed for months. I’ll bet the line finally started leaking. The air filter couldn’t keep up with the leak. The gas just kept building, and there was nowhere to vent it in space. Din just kept breathing it in the whole flight from the Mandalorian council.”
Rex’s theory was met with stunned silence. They all absorbed the horrifying reality that if Din had flown any further than Yavin IV he might have passed out and not woken up.
“So what now?” Cody asked.
“We go in with sealed helmets and turn off the fuel line. Switch the air filter to emergency vent all the air out of the ship. Then fix the kriffing leak. And install carbon monoxide detectors in every nook and cranny I can fit one.”
“Kark,” Luke whispered. “He could have died.”
“Let’s just thank the Maker the Little Grub wasn’t aboard the ship.” Rex shuddered.
The medbay door suddenly swung open. Even Rex could interpret the anger in R2-D2’s beeps. The droid shuffled out of the way, revealing Din sitting up in the cot pulling his chest plate back on.
“Hey,” Rex pushed into the room. “You need to lay down, now.”
“I’m fine,” Din answered.
“You’ve been poisoned,” Rex snapped.
Din paused. “By who?”
“By your piece of kriff ship,” Rex shot back.
Apparently that was fine. Din went back to assembling his armor.
Rex prodded him in the shoulder. “Lie down or I’ll suspend visiting hours with your son.”
Din’s blank visor met Rex’s eye. Internally, Rex drafted his last will and testament. It wasn’t long. Everything went to Cody, including responsibility for the kriffer in front of him. On the outside, Rex smoothed his expression and refused to back down.
Din accepted this stalemate. He leaned back on the cot. He didn’t remove any of the armor he’d put on, but Rex still counted it as a win.
Luke took the opportunity to sail into the room with Yoda the Youthful held aloft. Yoda the Lesser screamed at his father for scaring them all. Din took the Fledgling Yoda from Luke and wrapped him in his arms.
Din looked exhausted. Death by carbon monoxide will do that to a person. Rex helpfully cleared the room.
“Let the man rest.” Rex snuck one glance as he closed the door.
Din laid back against his pillow. Yoda the Ankle-biter snuggled up under his father’s chin. Din’s gloved hands rested on his child’s back, pulling the kid closer. Rex smiled and let the door fall shut.
Cody met him in the hallway. “He’ll live?”
“He’ll be back to his grumpy self in a day or two,” Rex confirmed.
“What did Bo Katan say?” Cody asked.
Rex blanched. “Oh kriff. I might have started a civil war.”