The Tragic Jedi | Anakin Skywalker

𝓢𝓬𝓮𝓷𝓮 𝟗𝟎

Astrid had just finished covering his wound with fresh bandages when their ship shuddered. Astrid glanced up to find that their ship had emerged from hyperspace, revealing the planet, Yavin IV, in front of them.  

Anakin let out a low groan as his eyes fluttered open, and Astrid told him as she rose to her feet, "We're almost there. Hang in there," before she hurried back to the cockpit. 

She slung herself into the pilot's seat and swiftly took ahold of the toggle. Astrid directed their ship down through the planet's atmosphere to the dense, green vegetation below. She decided to land the ship about a quarter of a mile from the rebel base to avoid being shot out of the sky by the rebels. After all, she was flying an Imperial starship.

 Within minutes, she was lowering their ship through the thick canopy to the soft, jungle floor. After shutting off the engines, Astrid leapt to her feet and hurried over to where Anakin was struggling to sit up. 

She grabbed his shoulders and helped him sit up as she told him, "We're about a quarter of a mile from the rebel base. Do you think you can make it?" 

His blue eyes-- now glazed with pain-- met hers as he managed to wheeze with slight increduality, "The rebel base?" 

"Well, yeah," Astrid replied as she helped him stand up from the cot. "Where else would we have gone?" 

He only gave a wince of pain as he slumped heavily against the wall with a hand clutched to his injured side. Already, his bandage was red with blood from his movements. Astrid grimaced, and she quickly came to his side and slung one of his arms over her shoulders. She wrapped her other arm around his waist in an effort to provide him more support as they stumbled down the lowered ramp and out of the ship. 

With Anakin's injury, it was slow moving through the dense jungle. His breath rattled with each excruciating step, and as they walked, he began to lean more and more of his weight on her. 

In an effort to distract him from his obvious pain, Astrid remarked lightheartedly, "It hurts getting shot by blaster fire, am I right?" 

She felt his eyes on her face, but she kept her eyes fixed forward as she searched the surrounding jungle for any familiar markers that would tell her they were nearing the rebel base. "You've been shot before?" he managed to ask, voice weak. 

"Hmm thrice now," Astrid told him casually with a slight shrug. "Twice during Order Sixty-Six and the one time when we were in the hallway--" She trailed off as she sensed the surge of guilt and self-deprecation from him through the Force at her words. She cleared her throat and finished with a mumble, "Yeah, three times. But the third time was only a graze." 

As they walked, his breathing turned raspy and wet sounding, and a couple of minutes after this realization, he stumbled and collapsed to the ground. 

"Anakin!" Astrid cried out as she sought to catch him, but she was too slow. 

She fell to her knees beside him, and the moisture in the dirt soaked into the knees of her pants. He had fallen onto his side, so Astrid gently turned him over, only to find that he had quite literally passed out. Alarm shot through her.  

"Kriff," she muttered when she glanced back and noticed the trail of blood on the ground. 

He was bleeding out. 

"Kriff!" she cursed again in a louder voice edged with panic. 

She rose to her feet and buried her hands in her hair in a flustered manner as she debated going back and flying the ship to their location or moving forward to the base and rounding up some rebels to help her carry Anakin back to the base.