ɪᴛ's ᴏᴋᴀʏ... [ᴇɴɢʟɪsʜ ✓]

15. Time as Enemy - Part 1

"Kix!" Rex called his brother, whose gaze immediately fell on the half bled to death Togruta in his arm.

The medi clone came running towards them, hoping he could still help her. Ahsoka was barely aware of anything around her, the remaining crust had broken open and almost a waterfall of blood poured down her stomach onto the stone, soaking it with red colour.

Rex laid her carefully on the floor, her head on his lap, while her eyes slowly closed. She just couldn't take any more.

"Ahsoka!" His voice sounded so distant and his worry-filled gaze consisted only of the glint of his shock-brown eyes to her.

"Kix!", his voice was filled with desperation.

Kix was the first to loosen the remaining bandage, earning a shocked look from Rex.

"I need to see what she was hit with first to be able to help", he explained calmly.

He had to remain calm. If he panicked too, it wouldn't help Ahsoka at all.

Her body vibrated with exertion, her blood pulsed erratically and her breathing went into hyperventilation.

She herself was only vaguely aware of it. She was not even to know the reason for the extent of the gunshot wound. Reality just seemed too far away for her.

Kix noticed white streaks between what should have been dark red blood emerging from her injury.

"Rex..." His brother's eerily soft tone laced with unease gave him goosebumps.

Then he noticed the unusual white streaks too. They both looked at each other for a moment, then Kix took something out of the bag he had placed beside him.

"Is that what I think it is?", Rex echoed, his gaze resting on Ahsoka's closed eyes.

"Mhmh", his counterpart merely returned, opening something round and silver.

Rex was puzzled. "But how can poison be packed into a laser shot?"

Inside the small box was a dull blue, gooey substance, which Kix now carefully applied to the cut and bullet wound, having cleaned the areas a little of fresh blood.

"I don't know Rex, I don't know."

To the clone's relief, the ointment did its job. The external bleeding stopped. At least for a few minutes.

Ahsoka could no longer tell if she felt anything but pain. But still, a new signature managed to interfere with her monotonous feelings.

Not Kix, she'd been able to sense that for several minutes. Someone else. Someone more familiar.

Someone who was struggling not to crash-land his fighter, in as much of a hurry as he was in.

Anakin had been gripped by inner panic when Ahsoka's mind had disappeared for a short time.

Now he felt the connection to her again, but faint and flickering strongly.

The girl was now, even in hellish pain, calm herself, at equilibrium with herself.

Her premonition had been confirmed. Someone close to her would leave life today. She herself would leave life today.

Despite this realisation, relief flooded her mind. At least it wasn't the lives of her friends.

And she had felt Anakin once more. She had made it.

"Captain, the enemy is defeated, the General wishes to speak with you".

Holding out until the end of the battle....

"Damn it, Bly, I can't now!", he hissed into the comlink and turned it off. He didn't have the nerve for Windu's pipe dreams now, too, and certainly not the time.

And just at that moment, Ahsoka stopped moving.

Anakin jumped out of his fighter and ran towards the three people behind the gunship.

Kix knelt beside Rex, who was holding Ahsoka. His heart stopped as her hand fell limply to the ground.