Heyo, human beings from outer space!
I cometh bearing another update. In which I am hurting Ahsoka. Again. And Rex. Hehe.
Trigger warnings for vomiting and gore.
Read on if you dare.
"Keep it steady, Commander!" Rex shouted over the commotion of the sparking console, smoking controls, and blaring alarms. "I've almost got it."
"Hurry! We only have ninety seconds," Ahsoka shouted, keeping her eyes on the console.
The alarms slammed around inside of Ahsoka's montrals agonizingly. For a split second, she lost focus. In that split second, she was unable to sense the stab of warning from the Force.
The console before her exploded into flames. She felt the hot, ripping sensation on her head and the rough impact as she slammed to the ground. The last thing she heard was Rex shouting something incoherent and a loud crash.
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Ahsoka felt herself jolting back to consciousness. Her face burned. She felt like one big bruise and felt very sick. Ahsoka had to fight the waves of nausea.
She finally sat up, shivering. The floor and air felt like ice. Togrutas didn't do well in cold.
Ahsoka glanced around her. She was in the cockpit, and she noticed Rex laying on the other side. Ahsoka crawled over to him.
A small panel of metal had fallen from the ceiling and covered Rex's face. Ahsoka flipped the metal off of Rex's face.
Ahsoka hardly had time to try to stop her stomach from flipping before vomit spilt out of her mouth and onto the floor. She coughed roughly and thickly, groaning when she wiped bright blood away from the edges of her mouth.
Over half of Rex's face was completely ripped up. Ahsoka could only see blood and shredded skin. He also had a long gash down his arm and his leg had twisted into a wonky position: Ahsoka could see both through his blacks.
She reached out her hand, closed her eyes, and called on the Force. She slowly healed Rex's face.
When Ahsoka's energy drained from her to the point she felt her arms shake, she relented. Ahsoka dragged herself across the cockpit and fumbled through the holding blocks on the walls until she found a medkit.
Ahsoka crawled back to Rex and got to work with the medical supplies. Rex's face was to the point that she could look at it without her meal making a second appearance. She taped Rex's face up with bandages.
At times like this, Ahsoka was very grateful for Kix's medical crash courses.
Rex's eyes fluttered open and he groaned. "C-commander."
Ahsoka gave him a tiny smile.
"Your face."
Ahsoka, somewhat confused, lifted her hand to her face. She brought it back, smeared with blood.
"You're burned," Rex pointed out.
"Oh, yeah, it'd make sense because the console exploded on me," Ahsoka chuckled dryly. Then she coughed and groaned from how it felt like sandpaper in her throat and lungs.
Rex groaned. "Leg, arm."
"I know," Ahsoka rasped. "I'm going to do your arm first, okay?"
Rex nodded as well as he could in acknowledgement. He bit his lip as Ahsoka removed his armour plates and wrapped a bandage tightly around his arm.
"Okay, I'm doing your leg now. This might hurt... a lot," Ahsoka warned apologetically.
She removed the armour slowly. When all the pieces were off, she observed the leg. It was worse than she thought: there was a lot of blood and Ahsoka could see some of the bone. One look at it and Ahsoka jerked sharply back and emptied more of her stomach on the floor.
"You okay?" Rex lifted his head to look at her.
"Yeah, just a lot of blood," Ahsoka groaned, closing her eyes and summoning the Force yet again. She pushed herself through her exhaustion to heal some of his leg. When she could look at it, she dressed it in bandages.
Ahsoka finished fixing him up and squeezed her legs to her chest, her teeth chattering. "R-rex, where are we?"
"Hoth," Rex replied.
Oh. That explained the cold.
Ahsoka dragged herself across the cockpit again and fumbled through the discombobulated cases until she found a few robes and course blankets. As she crossed the cockpit again, the floor creaked and Ahsoka froze at the stab of a warning through the Force.
Before she could react properly, a metal panel fell from the ceiling and slammed down on Ahsoka. She shrieked as it smashed her to the floor. Ahsoka heard a few painful cracks and struggled to gain enough breath. She used the Force to shove it off her and lay there, panting on the floor.
Every time Ahsoka breathed in, she felt something gurgle inside of her.
"Commander?!"
"I'm okay," Ahsoka groaned, coughing painfully. She reminded herself that Rex was the one who was injured badly. She forced herself to her knees and crawled through the ruined cockpit, draping the robe and most of the blankets over Rex.
Ahsoka kept one robe and one blanket for herself.
"You need more," Rex encouraged, trying to shrug a blanket off. "You're wearing a bikini."
"It's not a bikini," Ahsoka pulled out painkillers and found a canteen of water. She gave the pills and water to Rex and wrapped her robe more tightly around her shoulders.
Next... comms. Ahsoka pulled out her comm, flipping it on. Static crackled through her comm, but she desperately spoke into it anyways.
"This is Jedi Padawan Commander Ahsoka Tano," Ahsoka said loudly through the comm. "Clone Captain Rex is with me and we are stranded on the planet of Hoth. Does anyone read me?"
"We read you, Commander," a garbled voice replied. "Send us your coordinates."
Ahsoka did as she was told.
"We'll get to you as soon as we can."
The line went dead. Ahsoka had no idea how long it would take a search party to find them, and she assumed the coordinates weren't very clear. She could hear the wind whistling and snow pelting the side of the ship.
Rex had propped himself up against the wall. Ahsoka crawled over to join him.
"They'll be here eventually. They know we need help," Ahsoka reported.
"Good," Rex hummed.
The two sat in silence for a while, and then Ahsoka remembered something else. Rations.
Ahsoka dragged herself across the cockpit, found a pouch of rations, and returned to Rex. She handed him two ration bars and took one for herself.
Rex had no problem eating his. They needed fuel to keep themselves warm. But Ahsoka felt like the bites of ration were rocks pelleting her stomach. She forced herself to eat it, though, because she knew she might die if she didn't have any energy.
But the rocks of rations didn't stay in her stomach for long. She jerked away to empty them back onto the floor and sat back next to Rex, groaning. Everything looked dizzy and out of focus.
"Commander," Rex nudged her worriedly. "How many times is that?"
"Three," Ahsoka replied.
"That can't be healthy," Rex warned.
Ahsoka rolled her eyes at him. Wasn't it obvious? She regretted her decision to roll her eyes when she felt even more dizzy and sick. Ahsoka ended up dry heaving since there was nothing left inside of her.
Time seemed to drag on forever. Ahsoka trembled more and more violently with every passing moment. It was so cold. Rex eventually encouraged her to eat a bit more. He, too, was concerned about her having enough fuel to produce heat.
Ahsoka couldn't even keep half a ration down.
Time continued to pass slowly. Ahsoka didn't know how long they'd been there, but it felt like days. All she knew was that it turned crushingly dark twice and back to light again.
Ahsoka hadn't slept in fear of freezing to death and she hadn't been able to keep anything down, either. It certainly took a toll on her.
With every coming breath, Ahsoka felt heavier and everything hurt more. The gurgling inside of her when she breathed had only become thicker and she'd coughed up a lot of blood.
But it wasn't like she was any worse than Rex: he was certainly worse off than her, so she didn't have time to complain about herself.
Rex had fallen asleep. Ahsoka didn't want him to freeze to death, either, so she removed her own robe and wrapped it tightly around Rex.
Ahsoka could hear the sound of the wind howling outside of the ship. She listened closely: maybe she could hear a ship or something if it was coming close. Ahsoka closed her eyes and focused on the Force. She focused on the landscape and sky around them, scanning for any lifeforms or frequencies of a ship.
"Commander, you falling asleep on me?"
The voice startled Ahsoka out of her trance. Rex. Oh. He'd woken up.
"No," Ahsoka replied, only then noticing that her head had started lolling to one side. She felt her eyes slide shut. Hold on... was she falling asleep? Her breathing wasn't right and her head was heavy and her chest felt tight and...
"Hey, kid, stay with me," Rex urged, shaking her shoulder. "Just a little longer."
"Mhm," Ahsoka pursed her lips, focusing very hard on sitting upright and breathing properly.
"What'd you do with your robe, di'kut?" Rex sounded almost angry.
Ahsoka tilted her head and opened her mouth to reply when a sudden feeling swept through her. She felt as if a giant fist had punched her in the diaphragm and she couldn't take in any air. Ahsoka's head dropped and her eyes shut.
Rex's voice sounded so distant as he called out to her and she was only vaguely aware that he was shaking her shoulder.
Then her world faded away.
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Word Count: 1,670
Published: May 8, 2022
DUN DUN DUNNNNN!!! CLIFFHANGER!!!
I know. I'm a mean, horrible author. I'm making you endure a cliffhanger.
But don't worry, part two will be out tomorrow!
Requests are open, feel free to message me or make a comment if you have any ideas.
Bye, peoples!