"Enemy ships approaching," Rex's voice came from the com on your wrist, the one you had put on after getting dressed in the hospital before boarding the Resolute. "All troops and fighter pilots down to the hangar immediately. Everyone else be ready at your stations."
"Stay here," you urged Padme, but she clung to your arms.
"Don't leave me," her face crumpled. "I'm... I'm afraid."
You were about to shuck her off of you again when a sudden jolt threw you off your feet. You slammed into the wall, your still aching muscles screaming in protest. You groaned, steadying yourself with a hand to the wall, and then decided to just let Padmé cling onto you as you opened the door back up and peered into the hallway.
They were a mess of clones running around, plastisteel armor clicking against the ground, orders being shouted all over the place. You checked the time on your wrist-- shit. It had been much longer than 10 minutes. The Resoute had been flying for an hour now, and must have been intercepted by Separatist ships. Anakin had said it was a slim chance, but still very much possible. You just hadn't actually expected it.
You paused in the doorway, unsure of what to do now. You wanted to find Anakin, but you knew him too well to believe he'd be staying onboard during a space battle like this.
No-- he was most likely already hopping into his starfighter and zipping off into the mess of bullets and explosions out there.
The next logical option would be to go to the infirmary, but it was manned by droids and you would be of no use there. The only thing you could think to do was go to the hangar and see if anyone needed help there.
You and Padmé stumbled through the halls, feeling along the walls as the lights flickered with each impact of a blast against the flagship. The Senator gripped you so hard, you wouldn't be surprised if she drew blood.
The hangar was no less hectic than the halls-- if not, it was more so. Clones in blue and yellow armor were rushing around, hopping into ships, and zipping off through the plasma shield before you. The huge open port let you see the true extent of battle-- Separatist frigates, hundreds of buzz droids shooting past, and a few miscellaneous crafts that didn't look like the rest were all met with the full brunt of the 501st and 212th.
"Pirates," Padmé gasped as a bright green ship whizzed by. So that's what those odd looking ones were-- they must be working with the Separatists, seeing as how the frigates and assault ships were still holding back.
Scanning around the hangar bay, you searched for something you could do that would make yourself useful. Your eyes met Ahsoka's at the same time she saw you.
"Y/n!" she ran up to you from her own assault ship. "What are you doing here with the Senator? Go back to your room, it's not safe for either of you!"
"What can I do to help?" you ignored her, and she groaned like she had expected that.
"You can get into a speeder crash, get blown up, then kidnapped and drugged, and of course you'd want to hop right back into battle. You're just like Anakin. Come on."
You thrilled at her words, following her up the ramp of the assault ship. It was a little bigger than a starfighter, with a whole control panel in the middle of the ship where clones were sitting at their stations. Ahsoka passed them all and brought you to the front, where there were three chairs set up before the window.
"I'm just doing a flyby of the Separatist fleet in the back, using the cloaking devices we've been developing for the ship," Ahsoka spoke as her fingers flew over the dashboard. "It's out of the line of fire, but if Anakin knew I was bringing you two along..."
"We'll say we snuck onboard," you promised, finally prying Padmé off of your arm and onto a seat. She looked more green than pale now, clutching at the armrests of the chair.
You strapped her in with the belts, and then took your own seat and did the same to yourself. Ahsoka spit some orders into her com, and then the ship was lifting into the air and taking off.
Your head flung back against the chair, the gravity leaving your body as Ahsoka manned the ship into a steep nosedive to avoid the battle ahead. No one shot at you, and no droids targeted you. The cloaking device truly was a magnificent technology-- they couldn't even detect you.
You scanned the battle from below for any sign of a yellow starfighter among the flinging shrapnel and constant explosions. Anakin was one of the best pilots in the galaxy, and you trusted him to not die during a pirate invasion. It still didn't stop you from worrying.
"It's Obi-Wan," you pointed out a red starfighter zipping by, chasing after someone.
And there he was.
Anakin swung in and out of a line of droids effortlessly, spinning and twirling through the air like a bullet. His yellow starfighter was like a beacon of destruction, blasting everything in its path as Artoo screamed on the hull and Obi-Wan followed in his wake. He was gone from your line of sight in the blink of an eye, charging headfirst into the remnants of a ship he just blew up, swallowed by the flames.
Ahsoka's face was drawn down in concentration, manning the ship with her hands on the controls and her tongue sticking out a little bit. She successfully piloted it across the battle zone, now behind enemy lines as she got closer to the biggest ship.
Peering into the viewing window, she expected to see someone of importance giving off orders, but instead only saw a bunch of droids running around, clueless as always.
She flew to another ship, and found the same.
"Something's not right," Ahsoka flew to another ship. The chaos inside was the same. "Look at the way they're scrambling in there. It's like they're..."
"Trying to get away from something," you finished. You could see it, too-- the way the battle droids furiously typed into the computers on the command center, ushering the others to get to work, running into each other and falling over. They were in a complete panic.
"Turn the ship around," you told Ahsoka, needing to see the battle again. If no one was commanding these Separatist ships, and the only ones really fighting were the pirates...
"Ahsoka, update on your position."
Even his voice through the com gave you goosebumps.
"Behind the third frigate on the right," Ahsoka answered. "But Anakin--"
"Get out of there! Now!"
It seemed to happen in slow motion. One minute, there was a full blown battle going on. The next, the whole world erupted into blinding red and white, the heat from the flames tangible even from behind the plasma window.
Padmé screamed as the rolling waves of fire raced toward you, Ahsoka locking eyes with you.
Guilt.
Droids and assault ships were blown back, racing away or burned to a crisp as the fire swallowed them. But from out of the pinnacle of the explosion, racing toward you with smoke billowing up from the wings, was a yellow starfighter.
"Anakin, you idiot!" Ahsoka hissed, urged into motion again and punching in orders on the control panel. Something was interfering with the controls, and she couldn't move it. You kicked the dash a couple times, remembering how Anakin once said that sometimes the engines just need a couple smacks, but still nothing.
There was some sort of freeze-ray technology holding the ship in place, waving out from the initial explosion and freezing your ion engines so that the ship couldn't escape the flames.
They were coming in quick, but Anakin reached you faster, flying close, closer, too close--
The impact threw you forward, bracing yourself on the dash as the ship flung forward and out of the freeze-ray zone. He had sacrificed his right wing to clip onto the assault ship and thrust it forward, but now his was going down.
You couldn't see what happened to him because the flames caught up with you only a second later. The heat melted the back of the ship, swallowing the whole thing, as Ahsoka furiously drove down on the thruster. You could only see blinding white for a moment, and the remnants of smoke from Anakin's starfighter.
Your heart jumped into your throat, shielding your eyes and searching for his ship. But he had been swallowed by the explosion same as you.
Sweat dotted your brow as the ship finally broke from the flames, groaning and hissing, a ball of molten metal now. The wires in the control panel were zapping blue all up and down now, and Ahsoka snatched her hands away.
"Blast! I've lost control!"
"Anakin," you called in your com, watching the moon below you grow closer and closer, unable to do anything as you plummeted straight down. "Anakin, are you there?"
There was a crackle that answered you, but no words. You strained against your seatbelts, searching all around for any sight of Anakin. His ship was past repair, and there was no way he could make a safe landing anywhere. He needed help.
But so did you.
"Blast!" Ahsoka swore again, kicking the diffuser box. She brought her own com up to her wrist. "Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan, come in! We're going down!"
"I've got eyes on you," Obi-Wan replied, though he didn't sound too thrilled. "It looks like you're headed to the moon below. I'll try to guide you down safely."
"Obi-Wan," you shouted into your own com. "Anakin's gone down, too. Do you see him?"
"Y/n? Why are you--"
"Do you see him, Obi-Wan?"
"Negative. How bad is it?"
"His whole right wing was torn off, and the back was smoking."
There was a pause in which you thought Obi-Wan might be swearing as well.
"If he's anywhere near us, he'll land on the moon as well. Let's just focus on getting down there ourselves."
Your pulse raced, knowing what Anakin was doing wasn't exactly 'landing'. You couldn't tell if the rapid beat of your heart was from your panic, or Anakin's, as you clutched onto the armrests of your seat, bracing for impact.
A red starfighter came shooting down out of the corner of your eye, disappearing underneath your ship.
"I'm going to try and push up with my ship to slow the descent," Obi-Wan commed in. "Are the controls working? Some drag fins would help right now."
"Everything's shot," Ahsoka answered, buckling herself in with a tug to the straps.
"Unfortunate. Well, I'll see what I can do. Hold on tight."
You wondered if this would be it. If your last stroke of luck had run out, and this is what finally would be the end of you. So many times, you should have died these past couple weeks, and now, watching the ashy surface of the moon get closer and closer... you thought now would be a good idea to close your eyes tight, and say your goodbyes.
The sensation of hurtling toward a moon at lightning speed was like being in a whirlwind, but much hotter and with much more pressure on your skull. You couldn't move a muscle, everything blown back against the seat, teeth gritting and nails bearing down into the armrests, awaiting that fateful impact you had felt once before.
There was jolt, a harsh scrape and a groan of metal against metal. Obi-Wan's ship was under yours, pushing up, fighting the gravity pulling you in at a lethal pace.
You had to give it to him-- you didn't think he would have been up for something so daring. But you definitely weren't complaining now.
You were still plummeting though. Obi-Wan pushed harder up on the front of the ship, tilting the nose vertical so that the back of the ship would take the impact of the ground. You yelled out too late, realizing the clones were in the back, before it made impact with the ground.
You lurched in your seat, the restraints digging into your skin and cutting the air off from your lungs with the force it hit with. You lurched out of your seat almost completely as it dragged along the ground, then broke off, sending the front of the ship toppling upside down over Obi-Wan's starfighter.
You got a good, long look at the hard, dusty rock of the moon as you hung suspended in the air, arms thrown up over your head, before the hull turned upright once again and slammed into the ground. It skid along, bumping and jostling and dragging along the rock for what seemed like forever.
And then it all came to a stop.
And you were still alive.
You unbuckled your seatbelt, legs numb and shaking as you wrenched yourself upright. Your first thought-- Ahsoka and Padmé.
The Togruta was unbuckling her belt after you, shaking her head a little to clear the ache before reaching for Padmé. She was frozen in fear, still glued to her seat, but alive. Seeing as how they both seemed to be fine, you turned to more pressing matters.
You stumbled out of the hull and into what should have been the room with all the control panels and clones manning them. But all there was was a huge, gaping hole exposing you to the frigid atmosphere of the moon, severed wires zapping around the structure of the ship.
Without waiting for Ahsoka and Padmé, you hopped down onto the rock, shins burning with the impact, but shaking it off as you ran to the smoking ball of metal that had been the other half.
Everything was still, quiet. Not even the moan of an injured man, or the clunk of someone trying to get loose. You could see just how bad it was as soon as you peered in through a hole in the curved metal, the inside melted and crumpled and crushed. There was no surviving that.
Still, you had to call out just to be sure.
"There are no survivors," you didn't have to turn around to know who it was. "I can't feel anyone."
"You sacrificed them for us."
"They would have wanted that."
You could hear the grief clear as day in his words, and knew that if you turned around you would see it mirrored on his face.
This would haunt both of you forever-- another sin of war.
"Thank you," you said it to Obi-Wan, and the burned, crushed bodies of the clones below. They did not deserve to die like that, to be on the losing side of that coin flip. Now you would make sure they had not died in vain.
Swallowing back the guilt, you pushed it to the back of your head for another time. Your hands left prints on the ash of the metal as you let go of the ship, turning around to see Obi-Wan outlined by the smoking remains of his own totalled starfighter.
"Are you hurt?" You asked him, and he shook his head no. "You're holding your arm all weird. Let me take a look at it."
He relented, letting you take his hand in your own. Stubborn Jedi, always trying to hide their injuries. You knew it was only instinct because he'd rather save medical supplies for clones who needed it more, but you still didn't like the look of it.
His hand was all purple and blue, slowly starting to swell up from the wrist, and hanging at an odd angle. There was a sharp red tint to the radial bump on his wrist, and you didn't need an x-ray to know he had broken it.
The bad news was clear in your eyes.
"I can see if the ship... er... the rest of it has any medical supplies," you let him take his arm back, hiding it with his long robes. "Don't move it until I can get some sort of splint on it."
"I guess I'm glad you somehow managed to sneak your way on Ahsoka's ship," Obi-Wan said sarcastically, following your eyes as two figures jumped out of the broken hull. "Oh? And Padmé, too, I guess."
"She wouldn't let go of me," you defended, unable to meet his disapproving gaze now.
"Oh, I'm sure Anakin will love this."
Speaking of--
You turned around and around in a circle, searching the starry sky for any sign of another billowing pillar of smoke. There was nothing for miles.
You were too anxious to begin looking for him to wait around much longer. If he landed on the moon, he was probably in bad condition. And if he had somehow missed...
Your stomach twisted with anxiety just thinking about it. The only comfort was the beating of your heart-- surely if Anakin had died, yours would stop beating too? You weren't really sure how it all worked, but you didn't want to be proven wrong to find out.
Ignoring the screaming ache of your muscles, you ran across the rock and back to the ship, bypassing Ahsoka and Padmé as you began to rip through all the drawers and compartments. There was literally nothing.
"More bad news," you panted, catching up to the three again. "There are no supplies in the hull. All the communication devices have been crushed so we can't contact anyone for a rescue, and we're basically stranded out here with nothing."
"Always a ray of sunshine," Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. You pulled back the sleeve of his robe again, inspecting the swelling. It had gotten worse.
"If that starts to hurt really bad, tell me. I might just have to feel around for the bones and set it myself. And if it's a complete break, well..." Obi-Wan blinked a couple times.
"I'm trusting in the force on this one."
You raised an eyebrow, then turned to the girls. "Are you guys okay? Any injuries?"
Ashoka shook her head, holding Padmé up, who only groaned.
"My head hurts."
"Probably a concussion. I'd be surprised if we don't all have one"
"We need to find shelter, food, people, something," Ahsoka said, and you nodded along with her.
"Do you know where we are?"
"It's just a moon off the planet Teretto. I can't remember if there are any inhabitants."
"There are," Obi-Wan grimaced. "We call them 'Night Crawlers.' Big, white, spindly looking beings that walk and talk like us, but appear to be some sort of overgrown insect."
"Well, let's hope they're nice," you breathed, choosing a direction at random and starting off.
Anakin was in danger, you just knew it.
And this time, you would be the one to find him before it was too late.