Work Text:
Leth wasn’t usually this tense about most things, but this mission had him anxious. Something was going to happen. He could feel it. Even Tessa, the little Jedi Padawn, was nervous. Mossy green lekku twisting with anxiety as they prepared, the little leather headwrap painstakingly made and formed to best protect those lekku by her brothers, her vode. Sticking close to Leth’s Aurebesh squad during the engagement rather than running off on her own like she usually did.
Leth followed behind and tackled the small twi’lek as a round of blaster bolts flew overhead, some hitting brother’s. Most luckily missing.
“Watch it, Commander!”
Tessa nodded at Leth and ignited her saber, jumping to the forefront of the conflict and deflected the incoming fire.
Leth was running along when he saw the grenade they’d passed over. He’d barely gotten the warning out when he was thrown by the blast. He knew that at the velocity he’d been thrown, if he hit something he was going to be in a world of pain. But Tessa was there, catching him before he hit the ground with the Force. He shoved off the ground and nodded at her. The blast had knocked his HUD out of whack and now he had to focus on the battle with the HUD on the spritz. That turned out to be what might have saved them.
He watched as his brothers faltered, looking around and then panic shot through him as they aimed at little Tessa.
“Tess! Down!”
He called out and she dropped, trusting him. The blaster bolts that would’ve killed her shot into the woods around them, staining the snow with carbon scoring.
I was calling
For the last time
“Go!”
Leth shouted out, feeling that wrongness as his squadmates' voices assaulted his ears.
“What are you doing?”
“Execute Order Sixty-Six, CT-1820!”
It wasn’t his brothers…it was something else. All the memories of the small twi’lek growing up among them slid through his mind.
We've been here before
They found the pictures in the snow
He could see the young Jedi Padawan bowing before his squad amidst laughter and camaraderie. The hesitancy and newness for the little one washed away as they accepted her as their vod’ika.
The holopicture slipped free from his pouch as he was tackled to the ground. Activating it and showing the squad gathered around the beaming twi’lek child.
“
GO!”
Leth screamed again as Cresh’s hands gripped his wrists.
I can tell your eyes
Looked beneath the blue
Wide, terrified blue eyes stared back at him and Leth thrashed, throwing Cresh into Shen. And lurching after the Jedi Padawan.
“Run, don’t stop running! They won’t hesitate,
please
!”
Leth cried again, urging the teen onwards. Managing to scoop up the holo-projection as he ran.
She’d only been fifteen when the war had started. Had been an apprentice for a few years, but adjusting to battle had been her master’s worst fear and Tessa hadn’t even been allowed out on the field for a while.
I walk underneath the trees
For the first time
They were going to catch her. They were going to hurt the little one.
She slipped in the snow, and Leth chased after her, aware of the dozens of armored bodies running alongside him. No way to know which trooper had called out for her.
He slammed into a tree, careening into a few vod, derailing them and buying Tessa some time. He hoped it would be enough. His internal comms were screeching again. Brothers, good vod, asking for backup for Tess’s master.
They were good vode.
Leth slipped down where Tessa had, sliding as he went, heart aching as he reached a point ahead of the two squads chasing Tessa and turned back.
She needed to make it.
She had to
.
I was calling
For the last time
We've been here before
Her bright smile staring up at him, lekku bouncing on her shoulders as she went through the motions he’d shown her.
Motions she now replicated as her lightsabers winked out of existence and the holdout blaster they’d insisted she carry opened fire on Leth’s brothers.
Cresh fell, one hand held together, a strangled and near silent
“Commander, ni ceta.
” on his lips.
Found the pictures in the snow
Found the pictures in the snow
I walk underneath the trees
For the first time
The next bolt hit Leth and he crashed to the ground with a cry.
“Go! Go, Tessa
go!
”
He cried, the holo slipping free from his hand, the blood slowly starting to leak onto the snow. Armored boots raced past him, and Leth lay where he’d fallen, the blood had traveled now and was spreading across the flickering image of what they’d lost.
A hand turned Leth over, ripping his helmet off, and even though…Mern’s eyes were blank and hard, they weren’t completely blank and Leth saw the conflict and concern in their medics eyes.
I was calling
For the last time
“Th-the commander…”
Leth coughed, and Mern shook his head.
“
Please..Mern..the commander..she…”
Leth’s gaze wavered above him before solidifying as Mern jabbed something into his neck.
“The others are after her.”
The tone was flat. Except it wasn’t. The pain in Mern’s eyes was real.
We've been here before
They found the pictures in the snow
The lightsabers blazed to life nearby, cries of pain and anguish echoed into the forest, the crunch of boots on the fresh snow, even as Mern worked.
He looked up and Leth turned his head. The pair of boots standing by the holopic had his heart leaping into his throat.
“
No
”
She hadn’t run. She’d come back.
Mern’s body fell.
I can tell your eyes
Looked beneath the blue
“C-commander…T-tessa..”
Leth tried, watching the whirling blade slice through Vev and decapitate Zerek.
Leth pushed himself upright.
“Commander!”
He rasped out, blaster held loosely in one hand, and he stumbled towards her.
Shock slammed through him as sharp as the pain in his chest where Tessa’s blade had impaled him.
“Pr-protect…
you
.”
Leth rasped, eyes wide with shock, tears falling down his face as the Jedi Padawan realized what she’d done.
“No..nononono, Leth!”
The blade deactivated and Leth dropped, sightless eyes staring up into her blue ones.
The bodies of dozens of brothers. Of people she’d considered
family
lay around, and the one who’d done his best to protect her lay at her feet.
Her cry echoed into the trees.
I walk underneath the trees
For the first time
Silence fell on the forest, carbon scores scraped into the trees, and a lightsaber dropped next to the body of the vod. A small sob broke free from the no longer Padawan.
Boots, crunching against the snow again, slow and mournful, faded into the echoes of blasterfire and rustling leaves.
Heavier boots and kit came by, stepping over bodies and bending down to look at the holopic and the lightsaber. A small Jedi Padawan’s lightsaber, constructed with care. And the happiness in the holopic tainted with the blood of her brothers.
They were by a cliff. There was no way that she’d survived. Even if she’d taken two whole squads with her into death.
“Target eliminated.”