A Way Out (Clone Wars Fan Fic)

Chapter 7

Rex shared a tent with Fives, Jesse, Echo, Tup, and Kix. Kix was busy tending to the wounded from the previous battle, so he wouldn't be at the tent for at least a few hours. The clones sat in a circle, talking quietly. The rest of the camp was either asleep or in their assigned tents as well.

"And you think you saw the commander?"

Rex sighed. They had been talking about Ahsoka for some time now.

"I... don't know. Whoever it was looked just like her."

Jesse and Echo glanced at each other, and then Jesse cleared his voice and sarcastically mumbled:

"I dunno about that, sir."

He must not have mumbled quietly enough, because Echo elbowed him in the rib.

"Ow! What was that for?"

Echo just shook his head.

"Look, it might not have been her. But what if it was? What if she's out there, right now, looking for us? What if we left her tired, alone, injured, tortured, scared, attacked, or worse..."

Rex was spiraling. His head went to all the terrible thoughts of what could be happening to his commander. To Ahsoka. To his vod'ika. Rex stumbled on words, starting to breathe faster and faster until he collapsed on the ground, breathing in and out so fast he could barely get enough air.

"Captain!"

A voice rang out. Seeing this did not get his attention, they decided to drop the title and started calling their vod by his name.

"Rex! Rex, snap out of it!"

Rex could barely make out the words of his brothers. Fives was kneeling down next to him now, shaking his shoulders to try and knock him out of his trance. All the men in the room, which consisted of Echo, Jesse, Fives, and Tup, were now kneeling down beside Rex. They tried to calm Rex down the best they could, but it was usually Rex who was the one calming troopers down when they were having panic attacks, not them. This was obvious, as none of the troopers knew what to do besides hug their brother and tell him to breathe, which wasn't working as well as they hoped.

After a few minutes, it was clear Rex wasn't getting any better. He was still hyperventilating and was in worse shape than he was before. His hands gripped his head yanking on his hair, all while panicking and screeching Ahsoka's name. He was breathing faster and faster still, and he was beginning to shake. Fives glanced at Echo and Jesse, before bringing his attention to his brother beside him.

"Tup! Go find Kix and tell him that we need his help. Tell him it's urgent!"

Tup nodded, and he swiftly got up and left the tent to go look for Kix, but not before taking one last glance at Rex. Tup was worried about him. Rex had never broken down in front of any of his brothers, except for when things got really bad. That's why Fives had told him to go get Kix. Because this was a big deal.

Tup raced to the makeshift med-bay and nervously stood a few feet in the tent. If Tup was being honest, he didn't want to walk any further into the tent because he was worried Kix would come murder him for stepping foot into his workspace. Kix could be really scary when he was stressed.

Tup frantically scanned the room, but couldn't find Kix. Perhaps he was in a different area of the tent, tending to a patient, so Tup decided to look around for him. He was doing this for Rex after all, and just cause Tup was a little scared of Kix didn't mean that he was going to chicken out and leave. Rex needed him.

Just as Tup started to walk forward, he was greeted by a hand on his shoulder from behind him.

"Tup! What are you doing here?"

Tup turned around nervously, but that was replaced with relief as he realized it was Streek smiling down at him. Tup liked Streek. He didn't know him all that well, but he was a good soldier and was always friendly to anyone he talked to.

"Ah, I'm just looking for Kix. What are you doing here?"

Streek gestured to his wrist, which was bandaged in white cloth.

"Well, after the battle Kix insisted that I come with him to where they were setting up the tent to treat the wounded, all because he noticed my wrist was swollen. I told him I really didn't need to go, that I was fine, but then things took a violent turn when Kix pulled out his gun, saying he wasn't afraid to stun me if I didn't get checked out. So, that's how I ended up stuck here, sitting around until you showed up."

Tup chuckled, imagining his ori'vod shaking his gun at Streek, threatening him. It wasn't the first time someone had been threatened to get stunned by Kix. Kix pulled this card more often than you'd suspect, threatening Ahsoka more times than one could count and threatening everyone else when they refused to come to the medbay. Heck, Tup was pretty sure Kix did actually stun someone once, dragging the poor unconscious clone to the medbay himself.

Tup shook his head, the memory leaving him. He needed to focus. He needed to find Kix.

"Speaking of Kix threatening to stun you, where is he? I need to see him."

Streek eyed Tup, wondering why he would "need" Kix, but shrugged and pointed towards a corner of the tent.

"Last time I saw him, he was over there treating a shiny. Lancer was the kid's name if I remember right."

Tup nodded in thanks and speed-walked over to where Streek had pointed. Tup moved a privacy curtain hanging from the top of the tent out of the way and quietly stepped into the corner where the clone Lancer was either sleeping or unconscious. Kix was standing over him surveying his wounds. Kix looked tired, and he had dark circles under his eyes from staying up the last few nights fighting droids or tending to the wounded.

Kix didn't notice Tup's presence, so after a minute, Tup cleared his throat to try and get Kix's attention. It didn't work. Tup sighed, and walked over to where Kix was. He layed a hand on his brother's shoulder, gently letting Kix know that he needed to talk to him.

Kix looked over his shoulder, with an anxious expression, like he was about to be told by Coric that another wounded soldier had died. Luckily, it wasn't Coric with his hand on Kix's shoulder, it was Tup.

Kix leaned into his vod's touch, relaxing for the first time in days.

"There's been a.... situation,"

Tup began, and as soon as Kix heard that he stiffened, afraid of what Tup might say next.

"It's Rex, he's freaking out. Having some sort of panic attack. We tried to calm him down, but it didn't work. He's going to hurt himself if he doesn't get back to normal soon. It's not good."

Tup stood still for a second, letting his words sink in. Then, Kix began to walk out of the tent, but not before turning to Coric.

"I have to go. Can you take care of the men on your own?"

Coric looked up from his holo-pad. He was about to object, saying that he couldn't run this place on his own, but then he saw Kix's eyes. They were full of desperation, of worry. Coric only nodded, and Kix understood this meant that he'd be fine finishing up on his own tonight.

Kix and Tup bolted out of the makeshift medbay, heading straight for their tent where Rex and the others were.

Mando'a definitions:
Vod= brother, mate
Vod'ika= little sister
Ori'vod= older brother

Thank you so much for reading! Leave some comments if you could because I absolutely love reading them! I stayed up kinda late writing this... but it's okay because I get to go to school late tomorrow and sleep in. Anyways, enjoy!