Star Wars the Clone Wars: Legends Never Die

Chapter 13

Rex could've cried with relief when he wakes up leaning on the cold metal bars of a cell.

Usually, waking up on a stone floor with the smell of bodily fluids in the air is a good reason to panic- as it means that disease and hypothermia will kill him faster than the people holding him as their prisoner. In this case, however, Rex just enjoys being surrounded by four enclosed walls and having cuffs enclosed tightly around his wrists.

It's familiar, he tells himself. He can tolerate prisons and cufflinks.

"I guess our captors got bored," Blinder mumbles, testing the cuffs on his wrists with a grunt.

"I'd rather a cell over not knowing if I'm going to wake up in a desert or a jungle," Jesse adds, trying to stretch as best he can in the tight space. It's snug for the thirteen clones, plus their Jedi-

"Where's the Commander?" Rex bolts upright, not caring as he scrapes his arm against the abrasive wall. Their armour has been taken away- another sign that their captors have finally decided to do what everyone else does and lock them in one place.

"I'm here," she announces before the other catch his panic. She's huddled in the corner of the cell, trying to not wriggle as Coric uses the sleeve of his blacks to scrape some horrible, smelly, green gunk out of the wound in her montral. She winces, "They didn't clean it again."

"And it's infected," the senior medic adds tartly, "If it isn't cleaned soon, she'll get a fever and become hysteric. Then, her central nervous system will start to shut down, and her echolocation will become so severely damaged that she won't be able to walk in a straight line."

"The joys of montrals," Ahsoka rolls her eyes, "And I thought you had a better bedside manner than Kix, Coric."

The younger medic makes a show of looking away and pushing out his lower lip. Rubbing his eyes, Rex observes Ahsoka, noticing that her ribs are starting to stick out and her eyes look sunken in their sockets. How long has it been since they were properly fed? Although they weren't too hungry in the beginning, it takes a lot to nutritionally satisfy a clone, and Rex recognises his own sluggishness as malnutrition starting to set in.

Echo sniffs the air, "This place smells weird."

Chopper nods, "Like the slug baby from Teth."

"The who?" Sixteen asks, pausing from digging out the sand from underneath his nails.

"Jabba the Hutt's son who we rescued on Teth," Ridge explains for him. He's got an arm wrapped around Ox's shoulders- the shiny being unusually quiet. Rex has to remind himself that the sight of the cell might be familiar to him, but a lot of the new clones have probably never been imprisoned before.

He remembers being that young.

"You're right," Ahsoka brushes away Coric's hands, "This place does smell like Stinky."

"Excuse me!" Fives leans towards the door of the cell even though there's nobody outside- not even one droid or guard. "Could someone please open a window? A gundark's shebs smell better than this lousy prison does!"

Rex has to massage his temples when his brothers erupt in laughter. Even Chopper manages to grin beneath his hard-as-stone expression. Hardcase is inspired by Fives' display and joins him by the bars, "Yeah, and whilst you're at it, put on Corrie Radio! I don't want to miss the Bolo-ball scores!"

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Shaking her head, Ahsoka pushes herself to her feet to get a better look around. It can't be too difficult to break out of this facility but getting off whichever planet they're being held captive on will be more challenging. They've got no ship, and their commlinks have been taken with their armour. She's the only one without cufflinks, which is a respectively bad move of their captors.