Star Wars The Clone Wars So We Fight Through The Hurt

So We Fight Through The Hurt

"You can't be serious." Ahsoka knew he was, of course. It wasn't as though he'd never done anything like this before, but it didn't mean she had to like it.

Anakin sighed. "It's easier for just the two of us to recon the base - if we bring the whole squad, it's just that many more targets." He grinned at her. "Not feeling up to it?"

She scowled. "Of course I am!" she exclaimed, grabbing her supply pack. "I'll race you to the ridge!" Just because she didn't like the idea didn't mean she couldn't play along. He had a point, after all.

To her great pleasure, she beat him to the ridge. She knew he'd probably let her win - the man could move fastwhen he wanted to - but it still made her glad when he put a hand on her shoulder and congratulated her. Anakin did not hand out praise lightly, and when he did it always made her warm inside. Even two years into her apprenticeship, all she really wanted to do was please him. She knew she did, most of the time, even though sometimes she felt like he was overprotective - he just worried about her, Obi-Wan had said gently when she'd brought it up once, it didn't mean he doubted her abilities.

They walked together in silence for a time, dry sticks cracking under their boots. Suddenly, Anakin stopped and held up a hand. "Hold on," he said, hushed. He took a tentative step forward, holding out his arm to keep her from following.

The resulting explosion threw Ahsoka backwards into a grove of trees. She hit the ground hard, rolling to her feet, her lightsabers finding their ways to her hands. She waited, listening - there were no sounds of 'droids, no strafing runs from bombers. Just the aftermath ringing in her ears and the silence of the forest.

After she determined the explosion had been a landmine, she scanned the area - she didn't sense any others, maybe it hadn't been a planned attack after all. She straightened, coughed. "Master?" she called out, worried he hadn't run back over to her yet. "Master?"

She saw a flash of silver in the woods across from her, Anakin's glove clasps glinting in the filtered sunlight. Careful to use the Force to sense the safety of the ground around her, she rushed over as fast as she dared. "Master?" she asked again, and recoiled, throwing her hands over her mouth when she finally saw him.

He was covered in blood, his right leg bent at an unnatural angle, and Ahsoka was fairly certain she could see the bone poking through his tattered skin. She resisted the urge to gag; she'd seen worse, after all, but this was her Master.

She knelt beside him, careful not to jostle him, and carefully inspected the rest of him. Gashes in his legs and torso were bleeding at a troubling rate, and a bruise was forming on the side of his face, also cut and burned. His neck didn't seem to be broken, but she couldn't tell if there had been any spinal trauma. "Anakin," she said, softly. "Wake up."

His eyes flitted open; one had hemorrhaged, the cornea completely red. "Padme?" he asked, and there was a strange whistling sound from his chest when he spoke. Ahsoka didn't respond, but reached into her pack, managing to find some first aid supplies. Nothing like what Anakin actually needed, but at least enough gauze and tape to cover the chest wound, to put pressure on the worst of the bleeding. "Hey," Anakin said as she tried to gently wrap his arm in gauze. "Hey, am I dead?"

She shook her head vehemently. She didn't even want to thinkabout that, couldn't accept the outcome that might be inevitable, despite her action. "Not a chance," she replied, trying to keep her voice steady. "You're not getting away from me that easily."

Anakin blinked at her hazily. "We should get back to the ship," he suggested, and Ahsoka wondered if he had any idea how badly he was injured. "Help me up." Apparently not.

"You're not going anywhere, Master," she replied firmly, swallowing. "I'll comm Rex, have him come get us." She looked around, realizing there wasn't anywhere for a larty to land. Well, they'd have to improvise.