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Branches and vines brush and scrape against Ahsoka’s skin — the jungle clinging to her even as she tries to run from it. Her feet pound beneath her, splashing mud and dirt as she sprints as fast as she possibly can.
She turns back and sees Obi-Wan still behind her, but no sign of the Separatists chasing them. Still, it’s better to be safe than sorry. She pushes on, running even as her legs burn and her heart beats frantically in her chest.
There is no way she is going back to that Separatist hell hole. She and Obi-Wan had escaped after being imprisoned for three days. On their way out, Ahsoka was able to snag a comm before warning bells rang off throughout the complex, alerting the Separatist commanders and their droids that the Jedi prisoners had escaped.
As she runs, Ahsoka reaches into the Force, searching for threats and dangers. The threat of the Separatists is far away and fading. She slows to a stop.
“I think we lost them,” Ahsoka says, her heart still racing with the thrill of their desperate escape.
She turns around and finds her grandmaster a few meters behind her, breathing heavily and with his arm wrapped tightly around his abdomen. “Master Kenobi?” she asks tentatively.
He slows to a stop beside her, panting from exertion. “Yes, I don’t believe they’re following us anymore.”
She gives him an unimpressed look and then gestures to his middle. “What’s wrong?”
Obi-Wan winces. “It’s fine. It’s nothing you need to worry yourself about.”
“Show me.”
“It’s nothing. Let’s keep going. They might still be after us.”
“You just agreed with me that you think the Separatists lost our scent, now show me .”
Obi-Wan sighs and slowly unwraps his arm from around his stomach and pulls his robe back to reveal a blood-soaked spot on his white tunic.
“That’s not nothing , Master!” Ahsoka cries. “What happened?”
“Battle droid,” he says, sounding a little embarrassed. “It’s difficult to deflect blaster bolts without a lightsaber.”
Ahsoka frowns and takes a closer look at the wound. “It’s bleeding,” she says with concern. The blaster bolt should have cauterized the wound on contact. It shouldn’t be bleeding at all.
“It opened while we were running away,” Obi-Wan explains.
Ahsoka looks at his hands and sees they are covered in blood.
“I’ve been trying to put pressure on it,” he admits. “But it’s a little difficult to do while running.”
“Well, keep putting pressure on it. We don’t have any medical supplies and it doesn’t look like there are any nearby.”
“Yes Master Tano,” Obi-Wan says.
She glares at him. “ Someday I will be a Master and you will have to listen to me.”
“I have no doubts,” he says. “What I do have doubts about, however, is how we are going to get out of here.”
Ahsoka pulls the comm she stole out of her pocket. “Will this help?”
Obi-Wan gives her an astonished look. “When did you get that?”
“When we were escaping. You were probably too busy getting shot to notice.”
“Very funny. Let’s just call for help, shall we?”
“On it,” she replies, already messing with the comm’s frequency.
“Good. Your Master is probably worried sick about us.”
The cold twist of worry and guilt pools in her stomach. While it isn’t her or Obi-Wan’s fault they were captured by the Separatists, she still feels a sense of guilt for leaving Anakin behind to figure out what happened to them. In the cell, her thoughts often turned to him. She could just picture him wrought with anger and fear, wondering all the while if they were even alive.
Ahsoka turns the frequency until it aligns with Anakin’s. “Master?” she calls into the comm. “Master, are you there?”
“Ahsoka?” Anakin’s voice comes out tinny through the stolen comm, but the telltale signs of distress are all there. “Ahsoka where are you? Are you hurt? Are you with Obi-Wan?”
“Slow down, Master,” Ahsoka says. “I’m fine but I’m not sure where we are. I’m with Obi-Wan, but he’s hurt.”
“Obi-Wan?” Anakin asks. “How bad is it?”
“It’s nothing too bad,” Obi-Wan answers before Ahsoka can do it for him.
“What he means ,” Ahsoka says, “is he got hit in the stomach with a blaster bolt and now he’s bleeding out.”
“That is not what I meant, nor is it accurate.”
“Whatever, we’ll work out the semantics later,” Ahsoka says. “Right now we’re lost in some jungle and we need a bit of a rescue.”
“I can track your comm,” Anakin confirms, “but I’ll need a place to land. Find a clearing and I’ll meet you there.”
Ahsoka looks around the dense jungle with doubt. “Master, there isn’t exactly a whole lot of free space here.”
“Find some,” he says. “I’ll meet you there in… uhhhh hold on… entering the coordinates and…. almost got it…”
Obi-Wan rolls his eyes.
“Eight hours!” Anakin exclaims. “I’ll be there in eight hours. Can you hang on that long?”
Ahsoka looks at Obi-Wan with doubt. His tunics are even more blood-soaked then before, his hands stained red.
“We’ll be fine,” Obi-Wan answers.
“You better be,” Anakin says. “I’m on my way now.”
The comm flickers out and Ahsoka stuffs it back in her pockets. She looks around the dense jungle once more, letting the sounds of it wash over her for the first time, now that they have a moment to breathe. All manner of bird and insect can be heard through the humid air and felt through the Force. She hopes nothing more dangerous than that comes for them.
“Come on,” Obi-Wan says. “We best be on our way.”
Practicing subtlety, Ahsoka shifts her eyes over at Obi-Wan, trying to assess his current state. She’s already slowed her gait to match his stumbling one. He doesn’t even notice her looking back at him.
“Let’s take a break,” Ahsoka says.
Standing on her toes, she reaches for a large leaf and drinks the rainwater that has pooled inside of it. The rain-filled leaves have been their saving grace. Without it, Ahsoka isn’t sure either of them would have made it this far.
Especially Obi-Wan.
He’s leaning against a tree, not drinking from any of the leaves. He appears pensive and lost in thought.
“You should take a drink, Master,” Ahsoka insists.
“I’m slowing you down.” There is a resignation to him that wasn’t there before.
“No, Master—
“I am,” he says, cutting her off. “We’re running out of time until Anakin gets here. You need to find a clearing for Anakin to land in. You should just go.”
Ahsoka narrows her eyes and crosses her arms over her chest. “The blood loss must really be getting to you because that’s the most ridiculous plan I’ve ever heard.”
He gives her a half-hearted smile.
“I’m being serious,” Ahsoka says.
“So am I. We have no idea if the Separatists are still after us. You need to get out of here.”
“No.”
“Ahsoka—”
“No. I refuse.”
“Fine. Stay for now. But Ahsoka…” Obi-Wan begins. “If I— if I get to a point where I can’t go on anymore, you have to promise me you’ll keep going. You need to get out of here and back to Anakin.”
She shakes her head furiously. “No. I won’t leave you out here to die.”
“And I will not let my death be the cause of your own,” he says sharply. She recoils from him and his eyes soften with guilt. “I’m sorry, little one. I don’t mean to snap at you.”
“It’s okay,” she says softly. “But I’m not leaving you. Not now. Not ever.”
Obi-Wan sighs. “You’re as stubborn as your Master, you know that right?”
“And he’s as stubborn as his. Now take a drink of water.”
“Ahsoka…”
“No. There’s nothing more to say on this. I will not leave you here, no matter how bad it gets, and you will not change my mind, oh great Negotiator .”
Obi-Wan rolls his eyes. “Maybe they should call you the Negotiator.”
“They should. Now drink .”
He hides a wince of pain behind a quiet chuckle, but he obliges her and reaches for one of the water-filled leaves.
The sound of a river in the distance gives Ahsoka some hope.
“Come on, Master,” she says. “Maybe the river has a beach where Anakin can land. I can hear it from here, we must be getting close.”
He doesn’t respond.
She turns to face him and her heart sinks.
“‘Soka,” Obi-Wan slurs. His skin is deathly pale and his eyes are unfocused. “I think… I think I need to sit down.”
“Master?” Ahsoka rushes to his side, just as his knees buckle underneath him. She is able to slow his fall, but only just. They still crumble to the ground in a pile of tired limbs and torn tunics.
“Master Kenobi?” Ahsoka asks more frantically this time. “Obi-Wan?”
Ahsoka adjusts his body so that he lays on his back. She reaches for his neck and feels for a pulse. His heart beats on and his lungs still breathe, but he’s out cold.
“You gotta stay with me, Master,” she says. “We still haven’t found a clearing for Anakin.”
Nothing.
“Come on. He’s going to be so mad if we don’t find him a good place to land.”
It is at this moment that the Force decides to warn her of danger. She can feel it nipping at her in the tips of her montrals and on the back of her neck.
A branch snaps and she looks up.
Standing before her is a giant creature — scaled and snarling and everything she does not want to see right now. It stares at her, its head low and eyes sharp.
Ahsoka is of a carnivorous species. She knows when she is being hunted.
“Come on,” she hisses to Obi-Wan. “Wake up, we need to get out of here. Now .”
Silence.
“ Please .”
Obi-Wan’s eyes remain closed. He’s lost to the world and to Ahsoka.
The creature stalks closer. It growls, low and threatening deep in its throat.
Ahsoka really wishes she had her lightsabers right now. Or even just one lightsaber. A blaster would do. Anything she could use to defend herself and Obi-Wan from this creature.
She can’t run away and leave Obi-Wan to die.
The beast scrapes its paws on the ground, gearing up to charge at her. She tries to send calming energy towards the beast in the way she has seen Obi-Wan do in the past. She can sense the creature’s hunger. It can smell their sweat and Obi-Wan’s blood.
The beast continues to stalk forward, Ahsoka’s efforts wasted on its bloodlust.
And then it charges.
In one last, desperate effort to save her Grandmaster, she throws her body over Obi-Wan’s and braces herself for the tearing of claws into her flesh.
It never comes.
A harsh yelp and the familiar hum of a lightsaber sound through her montrals. Slowly, she turns just in time to see the tip of a blue saber piercing the creature’s neck. The blade disengages and the beast collapses on top of her and Obi-Wan.
Warm, dark blood pours onto her. With a grunt, Anakin rolls the creature off of them.
“That was timely,” Ahsoka says, pulling herself off of Obi-Wan.
“I think you mean ‘thank you,’” Anakin says. He looks her up and down. “Are you alright?”
She looks down at herself. There is blood all over her and none of it is hers.
“I’m fine, but Obi-Wan…”
Anakin is already kneeling by his former Master’s side. “Hey, old man, wake up,” he says nervously, lightly tapping Obi-Wan’s cheek.
Obi-Wan groans. “Stop that,” he murmurs. His eyes flutter open and he focuses them on Anakin. “Where did you land?”
“Seriously, it’s like no one has any manners,” Anakin says. “I landed by the river. There was a river bank big enough for the ship. And you’re welcome for saving your life by the way.”
“He’s not saved yet,” Ahsoka says nervously. “He’s lost a lot of blood.”
“‘M fine,” Obi-Wan slurs.
“Yep, sure, that’s why your blood is all over my Padawan,” Anakin says, hefting Obi-Wan up to his feet. He throws Obi-Wan’s arm over his shoulder and Ahsoka gets under the other one. “Don’t worry, I have medical supplies on the ship,” Anakin adds on.
Ahsoka huffs. “You’re really slathering on the hero stuff thick, aren’t you?”
“That still doesn’t sound like a thank you.”
“Yeah, I’ll thank you when we’re home and Obi-Wan’s not bleeding out.”
“Not bleedin’ out,” Obi-Wan murmurs.
“Yes, you are,” Anakin and Ahsoka say in unison.
Obi-Wan sighs, but gives no further argument.
“Fine, when we get home and Obi-Wan’s not bleeding out, then I will thank you for saving us,” Ahsoka says.
“Fine. I’ll wait. I’m very patient.”
Obi-Wan scoffs.
“Quiet, old man, that’s no way to treat your Padawan after he’s rescued you.”
“I think you need to finish rescuing us first,” Ahsoka says.
“ Technicalities . Now, let’s get a move on, shall we?”
This, at least, Ahsoka can agree upon.