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"Stubbornness knows not its own defeat."
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Soonisam IV was one of eighteen small, terrestrial moons that orbited the gas giant Soonisam; a brilliant, pink-purple ringed mammoth of a planet that gave off just enough heat to keep Soonisam IV, V, and VIII warm enough to make up for the lack of light from the white dwarf star the planet circled. The atmosphere was mostly nitrogen and oxygen but with enough sulfur to constantly smell like rotten eggs, and although there was no terrestrial animal life the surface-wide fen that covered the moon had some of the most colorful grasses and trees that Ahsoka had ever seen.
Unfortunately, she was too busy trying not to pass out from her guts strangling themselves to appreciate it.
The brief recon mission that had started as a quick system check to make sure that there wasn't any Seppie gas capture on Soonisam had turned into a two-week recon mission of the entire network of moons once enemy probes had been discovered and shot down. Anakin had left on the fourth day to scout Soonisam VIII with half of Torrent Company, promising to return by the next day. When they'd discovered an abandoned and heavily booby-trapped listening base beneath the permafrost surface, his return date had been pushed to when it's totally cleared, Snips, just stick with the boys and you'll be fine.
The first few days were fine. The ration bars that Skyguy had given to last her tasted different and weren't the red-wrapped ones that Master Obi-Wan usually ordered, but they filled her up the same and she even found herself a little more energetic than usual. By the third day, she'd felt a bit off and her belly had gone sour, but that wasn't all that unusual when camped on a strange new world. There were always foreign bacteria and contaminants from a completely isolated biosphere that could affect her negatively, not to mention that there was enough sulfur in the atmosphere to have to walk around with an oxygen clip on her nose.
Then the sickness came.
As the week passed, she was able to meditate her way through it for the most part; the urge to run to the fresher every ten minutes was the hardest, but she called on every ounce of willpower and training she had to slow down the processes of her own body and forced her muscles to stop cramping. In lieu of emptying everything it ingested, her body had decided to seek vengeance by bloating up with gas, causing stabbing pain every time she moved. Scouting the fens with the boys for probe remnants had gone from a fun blue-milk run to an embarrassing disappearing act that she had to disguise as checking out smells and noises that she picked up with her superior senses. By the end of the second week, Ahsoka had concluded that she was simply not designed for this kriffing moon and there was something horribly toxic here that affected Togrutas specifically, because nobody else seemed to be having the distress she was.
Ahsoka had lost weight but her belly had swelled up with bloat, making her almost look pregnant. The greaves and pauldrons Rex had kitted up for her hung loose, so she'd had to throw on an extra robe to make up for the difference. Her usual acrobatics were completely out of the question; her stomach hurt too badly to even bend over half the time. Even her lekku had started to shrink and peel, a definite sign of severe illness. Instead of just admitting to Kix that she was having the most embarrassing problem possible, she'd slathered on some stolen burn ointment from his medical supplies and soldiered on.
She wasn't a youngling, she was a Jedi and a Commander. She could handle it.
The gentle pink light cast by Soonisam made her weight loss and gaunt face easier to hide than it would have been normally. She found herself drawing away more and more, making the excuse of scouting the fens at her own speed but in reality, she'd just needed the freedom to go and let loose on this osik excuse for a habitable surface.
She'd even managed to fool Master Obi-Wan during their nightly Ryl study sessions over holocalls by meditating beforehand and wrapping herself in an oversized blanket. The boys were all running on fumes and stims, trying to find the last three destroyed probes that weren't showing up on any scans for some forsaken reason, leading them to run ragged on rotating shifts to manually comb the surface so they'd be done by the time Anakin got back.
She hadn't eaten in two days, not since she had regurgitated her rations three times in a row. She was crouched in the long grass, cramping and sweating and trying not to vomit yet again, when Rex commed her.
"You fall in a hole, kid?"
She would have laughed if it didn't hurt.
"I'm good, Rex," she answered through gritted teeth. "On my way back now. Thought I saw some machine parts this way."
"Hurry it up, Commander. You're not supposed to be on your own out there at this time of night."
"There are no animals here, Rex, and I'm not about to get jumped by the grass." She closed her eyes as another cramp nearly knocked her over.
"Not the point, vod'ika." Rex sounded disgruntled. "Put a move on it, unless you want me to come and get you."
"Copy that, Captain." She disconnected the link and almost sobbed from another wave of pain. All she wanted to do was curl into a ball in her tent and cry, but the thought of having to sneak around and find a way to relieve herself without the boys knowing was too much.
It would be so easy to just tell Kix; he'd already had a talk with her about not being embarrassed to come to him with anything, especially female health concerns. He'd even shown her his extensive reference database for Togruta health and diseases, but there was just something so damn humiliating about having to admit that you were on the verge of ruining your pants every minute of the day. Call it pride, call it stubbornness, but she'd never be able to look him in the face again. She already had to fight her need to blush every time she thought about when he'd casually spelled out his care plan for when her future heat cycles started.
She got to her feet with a wince and started the trek back to base camp.
Was it just her, or was Soonisam shining a little brighter tonight? The radiant grasses were swaying in the breeze, casting a kaleidoscope of colored shadows. The lack of even insects on the moon's surface meant that there was an eerie silence, only the little clicks of reeds and grass.
A fresh wave of cramps sent Ahsoka to her knees, and she had barely a second to feel the wave of bile and stomach acid rise before she was retching again. She saw stars and almost fell unconscious from the pain. Stomach acid had been burning her throat for days, and as she heaved she felt something in her throat split and the hot taste of blood joined with the acid.
When there was finally nothing more she could expel, she struggled to get to her knees. She had to get up and get moving. The only other option was laying down and dying in a puddle of her own sick, and that was the lamest way to die she could think of.
She was close enough to base camp where she could just barely see the edges of her men's auras but walking felt impossible. Kark it. "Rex," she whispered, falling back on her shebs, not sure if she'd actually hit her comm or not. Soonisam was definitely brighter tonight, she was sure of it now. She could see not just her shadow in front of her, but a lot of blood clots in her puddle of vomit.
"Commander, you've got five minutes to get back to camp before I send out a search party."
Her head was pounding, and the world around her was spinning and fading to spotted black around the edges of her vision. She managed to hit the emergency beacon on her commlink before going completely prone.
The distant smoky auras of her men in the camp instantly flared; she could see the flickering staticky-white cloud of panic through her half-closed eyes as they instantly mobilized and moved in her direction.
"Commander!" Rex sounded gutted and she wanted to cry, but there was only the stinging of salt in her eyes.
"Rex," she croaked, barely able to even hear herself over the sound of her pulse in her montrals, and reached out a weak hand.
The world around her flickered in and out. One moment she was on the ground, the next she was being held tightly against a plastoid chest with Rex's voice desperately begging her to hold on, they were almost to camp, I've got you just hold on vod'ika–
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"I can't believe she didn't say anything," General Skywalker groaned. "I thought she was just burning too many calories out scouting, but this?" Skywalker glared at the plain white plasticine-wrapped culprit in his hand. "It's been two weeks! She's been starving and, and…" his frown intensified. "Well, shitting herself to death."
"I don't disagree, General, but I'm sure you'd agree that it's a bit of a sensitive topic." Kix adjusted the drip rate on her IV. Ironically, Skywalker had already begun his descent onto their moon when Kix had called in to tell him that his Padawan was currently in critical condition because she'd been hiding the fact that she was reacting to ration bars made from a genetically engineered kaminiise mushroom, which the carnivorous commander was completely unable to digest.
"I know, but still. Ending up in a hospital bed because of pride isn't the Jedi way."
Kix snorted. The Jedi were notorious for being horrible patients, and that was after having to bully them into the medbay in the first place. "I'm sure you remember being a Padawan, Sir. Would you have told General Kenobi?"
Skywalker's face said a very decisive no but the Jedi shrugged. "Not right away, but after two weeks? That's a stretch, even for me."
"In the meantime, Sir, we need to get nutrients in her. The liquid nutrition I have on hand is the same fungus-based protein as in the ration bars. She needs blood, ideally."
Skywalker raised an eyebrow. "A transfusion? Don't you have any Togruta blood in stock?"
"Yes, but she needs it to eat, Sir." Kix held the back of his hand to Ahsoka's forehead. She felt slightly feverish, and her skin was clammy. "A blood diet to Togrutas is what a bland diet is to humans. It's the easiest thing for her to digest. Macerated organ meat would do almost as well, ideally from something native to Shili."
Kix ran a scanner over her forehead and frowned at the 102° it reported. "Standard Tog body temp is 100° even," he said aloud. "This might indicate infection."
"Oh good grief," Skywalker muttered and rubbed his forehead. "From what?"
"Hopefully not the start of necrotizing enterocolitis," Kix said darkly and started to run a different scanning device over her belly. "I'm going to guess now that the lining of her intestines is very irritated from reacting to the ration bars. Her immune system has tanked from what we now know is malnutrition, but then the bacteria and enzymes in her second stomach were dragged into her intestines by the rations. When they didn't have any animal protein to digest, they started eating into her."
The scanner beeped. Kix read the feedback and looked at Skywalker with relief. "Pretty severe inflammation, but no sign of leakage into her abdominal cavity."
Skywalker looked pale. "Please tell me you have a treatment for this."
"Incredibly strong antibiotics, Sir." Kix readied a hypospray of तΩ-aminoglycoside, rolled the unconscious Ahsoka onto her side, and injected it into the top of her left buttock where there was still some muscle. Her arm had gotten so skinny that he was afraid the injection would go right through her bicep. "Luckily we caught it before it could actually cause a perforation. Forty-eight hours on an IV and blood and organs only for at least two weeks. For a human, I'd say nothing at all while her intestines heal, but she's already so malnourished…" Kix trailed off, thinking and frowning. The General would probably not like what he was about to suggest.
"She should go back to The Resolute, or the Temple," Skywalker said, rubbing his eyes. "Temple will have access to thimiar meat and blood. I know those are from Shili." He sat back in the dinky bedside chair with a sigh. "Obi-Wan is gonna kill me."
"I agree with sending her to The Resolute, but right now she needs to flush the overgrowth out of her intestines," Kix said hesitantly. "I have an idea."
Skywalker nodded at him to continue.
"I can feed her blood infused with bacta. It'll calm the inflammation, flush the overgrowth, and kickstart her digestive system back up."
Skywalker didn't seem to clock why Kix was so hesitant. "Then go ahead?" he said, confused. "Do you need permission from me? Whatever she needs, do it."
"Sir, there's no animal life on this planet. We have only one source of blood available to us right now."
Skywalker furrowed his brow, then his eyes went wide as the credit dropped. "Oh."
"Right. Us. Well you, specifically," Kix said awkwardly.
"Can't you use the blood transfusion packs?" Skywalker asked.
"Unfortunately, no. They're pretreated with a preservative to last without refrigeration, which really shouldn't be ingested even by a perfectly healthy person. And we've all got stims in our systems, which could give her a heart attack if she ingested those right now."
"And Jedi don't use stims," Skywalker said slowly. "So I'm the only one who's safe."
"Yeah." Kix cleared his throat. "I'm sorry General, it's a lot to ask-"
"It's not." Skywalker crossed his arms. "I'd give her a blood transfusion if I could, this isn't that different."
Except for the fact that she'll be eating it. Kix rummaged through his supply cart and retrieved a sterile blood collection kit.
Skywalker suddenly grinned. "I'll be able to hold this over her for the rest of her life. It's kind of funny." He turned to his unconscious Padawan and rubbed her between her montrals like a tooka. "Hey, Snips, ready for lunch?"
Kix rolled his eyes. "I'll take half a liter for now, but you might want a word with the boys on laying off on the stims." Skywalker raised an eyebrow. "Takes around forty-eight hours to get out of their system Sir, so if we need more before she can get shipped back for some reason then we'll have something for her."
"Alright." Skywalker shrugged out of his tabards and outer robe, leaving them in a pile around his chair, then rolled up a sleeve. "Ready when you are."
"Go ahead and make a fist." Kix wrapped a rubber tie-off above his elbow, gloved up, swabbed the General's arm with disinfectant, and inserted the catheter, biting the smile off of his lips at Skywalker's eyes when he saw the size of the needle.
"So, uh, how often are you all using stims?" General Skywalker asked, squeezing his fist to watch the blood leave faster. "Because I assumed that was an emergency thing."
"It's supposed to be, but honestly, it's become a bit of a crutch," Kix admitted. "We're built for war, Sir, and we can manage long campaigns, but it's still hard even for us. When you get four hours of rack time in as many days, you do what you have to do to keep going."
"Hmm." Skywalker didn't look pleased, but he didn't look like he was about to ream Kix out for it either. "I get it. Any suggestions in the meantime?"
Questions like those were why Kix thanked the universe every day that he'd been assigned to the 501st. General Skywalker, despite his insanity and bravado, genuinely cared about his men.
"That'd be a better question for Rex, Sir. All I can recommend is more rest, which isn't always an option." Kix shucked off his gloves and sat on the opposite side of the little Commander. "I'm mostly here to staple heads shut and hand out the good osik."
Skywalker laughed and flexed his fist again. "Think I can make it go faster with the Force?" he smirked.
"Please don't, Sir." Kix eyed the collection bag, already a quarter full. "I've already got to write a report on this, I'd hate to have to write a second one on how my General ended up exsanguinating himself with the Force."
"Good point."
"General, Sir," Vaughn popped his head into the door of the medical tent. "We're getting a transmission from General Kenobi at the comm tent."
"Reroute it to my comm," Skywalker answered, and flexed his fist again. "Audio only, if you don't mind."
"Right away, General." Vaughn retreated as quickly as he came, and Skywalker's wrist started beeping less than a minute later.
"What did you do, Anakin?" Kenobi's voice came through without bothering with a greeting.
"Who said I did anything?"
"Put me on holo. Now." The Negotiator sounded uncharacteristically pissed, and Kix made himself look busy with his supply cart.
"No can do, Master, I think my transmitter is glitching."
"Padawan, I have known you for ten years. Do you really think I don't know when you're talking mince to me?"
Kix smothered his laugh with a cough.
"No really, Master, I think it needs to be replaced. Been going out on me for at least a week," Skywalker lied smoothly. His blood bag was a bit over half full, and Kix began to prepare the red bacta infusion he'd mix with it.
Kenobi sighed. "Fine. Since you insist on being a child, at least tell me what's wrong with Ahsoka."
Skywalker and Kix locked panicked eyes. "Nothing! Nothing's wrong with her. Why would you say that?" Skywalker said in a voice half an octave higher than it normally was.
"She missed her scheduled Ryl exam two hours ago and I've commed her six times. What. Happened."
"Oh, right." Skywalker coughed to stall. "She had a bad reaction to the ration bars. Kix gave her some medicine, she's sleeping it off."
Kix had time in the very pregnant silence to admire the fact that it wasn't technically a lie.
"Anakin, please tell me you haven't been feeding her human ration bars," said Kenobi in a tone that sent chills down Kix's spine, and looking at his general, he was felt it as well.
"Technically she's been feeding herself with the–"
"I told you ten times before you left for this mission, Anakin! Ten. She is a carnivore! You have to requisition her rations separately!"
"I know, Mast-"
"Do you understand that she cannot digest human ration bars?"
"Yes, and-"
"Sir, Kix here. If I may-"
"You may not."
Kix shut up.
"Master, that's rude."
"Let me speak to her. Now."
"She's asleep, Master." Skywalker had gone pale, and Kix wasn't sure if it was from the blood loss or fear of Kenobi.
"Wake. Her. Up."
Skywalker glanced up at Kix. "You heard him," he said faintly. He was sweating. Kix retrieved an emergency glucose tube from his cart and handed it to him.
"Sir, respectfully, I can't introduce any stimulants to her system right now," said Kix. "They'd do more harm than good, and she needs rest."
"How bad is she?" Kenobi was doing a fine job disguising his worry with anger at his vod'ika, but Kix could hear it.
"She's anemic, had low blood sugar, low in thiamine, taurine, and potassium, sev–" Kix paused at Skywalker's panicked flail of his hand across his throat. " –ah, some inflammation in her abdomen from being irritated by the fungus-based protein. And a mild fever."
"Anything else?" asked General Kenobi.
Skywalker and Kix stared at each other.
"Dehydration from diarrhea?" Kix said hesitantly.
Skywalker barked out a laugh, went white, and fell over, swearing in Toydarian the whole way down.
"General Kenobi, I apologize, but I need to tend to my patients. I promise everyone is going to survive." Kix hit the disconnect on Skywalker's com and pulled him upright. "Easy there, General. Eat the glucose."
"Did you just hang up on Obi-Wan?" Skywalker began to cackle like a kowakian monkey-lizard. "You are in so much trouble."
"Medic privilege," Kix said smoothly. "Hold this." He withdrew the catheter and slapped a wad of gauze over the entry point.
"Now, go ahead and lie down. I'm going to infuse these and get a feeding tube in the Commander."
Skywalker heaved his oversized frame onto the neighboring cot, finger still pressed to his arm. "She's gonna hate that," he said mildly, watching Kix feed the tube through her nose and down her throat.
"Undoubtedly." Kix secured the tube to her cheek with a small strip of mesh tape and hung up the bacta-infused blood bag. "But she'll hopefully be feeling much better after this."
"Get Rex to call in a medical evac," Skywalker mumbled and sucked on the tube of glucose.
"Captain Rex, Sir, please report to medical," Kix said into his com. The tent flap opened barely a second later.
"Were you nearby, Sir?" asked Kix, trying not to laugh.
"How's she doing?" Rex ignored him and immediately went to the Commander's side, then did a double take at the reclining Skywalker. "Fierfek, Sir, what happened to you?"
"She needed blood," Skywalker shrugged and tossed the empty glucose tube overhand into a disposal unit on the opposite side of the tent. "Apparently, you're all too jacked up on stims to donate, so I got to be the lucky one."
"Do you have a compatible blood type with a Togruta?" Rex asked, bewildered.
"Nope. She's eating it." Skywalker jerked his head at the bag Kix had secured over Ahsoka's head. "She's too sick to digest anything else."
Rex went pale. "Sir, I'm so sorry I didn't notice earlier. I promise if I had-"
"I know, Rex." Skywalker's tone was sympathetic. "It was her responsibility to speak up, it's not your fault."
"She needs to get back up to The Resolute, though," Kix added. "Shall I call the transport for her, General?"
"I'll do it." Rex looked down at the tiny Commander, swaddled in blankets with tubes coming out all over, and looked stricken. "I'll keep a better watch next time, kid. I promise."
Skywalker and Kix exchanged a glance after Rex left the tent.
"He's really taken a shine to her, hasn't he?" asked Skywalker softly.
"She's his vod'ika, Sir," Kix answered. "Little sister. Us clones, we tend to adopt our younger brothers and stick together on the battlefield. Like a buddy system. He's her ori'vod, her big brother."
Skywalker smiled. "How often are ah… what do you all call us, natborns?" Kix nodded. "How often do they get adopted?"
"Not often," Kix said fondly.
Skywalker sighed and let his head rest on his arm. "They should make friendship bracelets."
Kix snorted and tossed a second glucose tube onto his chest.
Rex poked his head back into the tent. "Sir, I opened up a comm channel but was just informed that The Negotiator is in orbit."
Skywalker didn't move, just stared at the tent ceiling. "Kix, you can go ahead and drain me. I'm dead anyway."
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