I kept falling with a mental cry so penetrating that Rex felt it through Battle Meld.
His pain ripped my heart as I kept falling toward the streets of Coruscant.
But that wasn't going to be the end.
Through the Force, I felt the weapon belonging to the Clone discharge. My eyes flicked up faster than my neck craned. However, I had a feeling I knew what had been shot toward me.
I slowed my decent as much as I could through the Force by wrapping an invisible hold around the ship with my right hand. An invisible muscle strained as I used my left to flick the life line toward me.
A wire wrapped itself around my left arm. Something sharp, curved, and cold tried to lock around my wrist but failed. With a flick of my hand and a groan of strain that was swallowed up by the wind and engine, I used the Force and a grappling hook snagged my wrist and locked around its wire, slightly digging into back of my arm to draw blood through the cloth.
I released the ship and felt the strain disappear. The inside of my palm burned as I grasped my life line. Calluses were rubbed and sliced cleanly by the cold line. Blood leaked down my wrist from both my fingernails and Palm now as my shoulder strained in its socket but I was yanked too hard and the joint in my shoulder screamed in protest and snapped. Pain erupted in my vision but the Force continued to guide me.
The hold I maintained on the wire with my hand became that much harder because each move brought on pain from my torn shoulder and allowed the grappling hook to dig deeper but through the Force I managed. My only wish was that I didn't have my lightsaber in my right hand. However, there was no chance that I was going to drop it purposely.
Over the sound of the ship and the wind, a strained voice yelled under his helmet, "Pull up, Rex! Pull up!"
In Battle Meld, I felt his relief but he wasn't done yet either. He pulled the controls for the ship toward him and sank back in his chair as much as he could. (At this moment, the score entitled General Grievous from Episode III begins to play. *continue*). His determination rivaled that of any hope and determination I had ever felt. And my hope in this moment was something I hadn't felt in a few hours.
The ship angled up in a move I had only ever known Anakin Skywalker to attempt. My shoulder burned as I started to be pulled closer to the ramp and safety. I tried to climb but my left hand was more or less useful without my right and a good shoulder.
Blaster shots were fired as Clones got a hold of their senses and gathered themselves near the glass I had knocked out. Heat grazed by me but it was probably too far for any of them to get good enough aim at this point.
I didn't dare unleash my lightsaber because one wrong move would definitely end my life this time.
Rex brought the ship up and leveled it out to get us above Coruscant to flee the life that had just crumbled around us in seconds.
It took several seconds but when I finally reached the arms of the Clone and could place my feet on the ramp, I wrapped my arms around him the best I could and leaned into his yellow colored chest and he wrapped his yellow patched armored arm around me when he released his gun while his other held onto the ramp pole. "Wolffe, close the ramp! I've got her! I've got her!"
Wolffe? Commander Wolffe? Rex had saved these guys? I would have used the Force to get the grappling gun off my wrist but I was now hanging onto him for dear life and he was straining against a pole. The ramp started to close the pole started to get shorter and shorter. We were going to have a problem and the Clone was starting to realize this too. I heard him swear and I yelled as my right arm wrapped around him. "Hold on to me!"
Hopefully, he heard me. I took his weight and pushed forward into the cargo hold of the ship. The Force carried us as he grabbed ahold of me now. I landed in the ship as the ramp closed. My ears popped and my equilibrium awkwardly went askew. The Clone wrapped around me caught my weight and steadied me. "Woah."
I finally got a good look at his helmet and my eyebrows shot into the air. I recognized those tally marks on his helmet and the commando armor. It was the lost commando. "Gregor?"
He chuckled under his helmet and let me take my own weight with my lightsaber still clutched in my right hand and a limp bleeding left hand with a grappling hook still attached dangling at my side. "You know me?"
He unwrapped the grappling hook and let it fall to the floor. He tried to inspect my left hand but instead went to my shoulder and tried to hold up my arm but I was distracted since the pain was not felt past adrenaline and the Force.
Wolffe could be heard now as I felt Rex's joy. The older Clone removed his helmet to reveal his scarred face and a small smile. One thing that I noticed was his patched head and it made my heart ache for Fives. Rex had saved these men and himself because of Fives. He did not die in vain.
"It's nice to see a friendly face still alive."
I would have never done this otherwise because Wolffe was not the hugging type but I walked over to him next to the control panel in the wall and hugged him with my good right arm. When I did it, I felt the tug of hyperspace and his overpowering awkward nature as he stood there, not knowing what to do. I laughed and smiled when I stepped away, now feeling the happiness of being with the ones I probably would never leave. "Sorry, Wolffe."
He shrugged and rubbed his head with his free hand as I finally strapped my lightsaber to my waist. My knuckles had become whiter than their Clone armor. "It's fine, General."
Rex's emotion was beyond anything I had ever felt in Battle Meld. I had never felt this much from him before but I had never felt this way before.
I turned. Rex walked through the door to the cargo hold without his helmet and smiled. A patch was also on his head and his bleached hair was utterly gone. But the sparkle in his gold eyes reflected something that was within us both. We were not holding back.
We never even said a word to each other as we met each other in the middle and wrapped each other in our arms. Rex pulled me into him as my right pulled myself into him. His cheek rubbed against mine as he pulled away and looked into mine. "It took hell for me to finally say this to you." His gold eyes held mine and he spoke with an urgency that wasn't like the urgent tone he had earlier. It was different. "Xeniah, I can't loose you. I won't loose you. I won't let anything happen to you, General." He swallowed and his hands rested on my waist while the words poured out of his mouth. "I will go down fighting for your life."
This was not like his devotion to the Republic or even his devotion to put his life before a Jedi. This was him putting his life before mine or fighting to save my life. This was different. My right hand reached up and cupped his cheek. "Rex, I know how you feel. I feel the same way. I don't know what I would do without you... I don't know what I would've done if I had known I lost you." I smiled. "But, Captain, I'm in love with you."
Rex leaned into my hand and his eyes widened when he gently took my hand in his and ran an armored thumb across my knuckles. He brought my hand down and mumbled something when debate flickered in his eyes. I could have sworn he said, "Screw it." But that thought left me when his other hand curled around my neck and his lips found mine. His touch was passionate but his lips thirsted for more even though he drew away to whisper. "I've loved you for a long, long time."
(There may be continuous one shots to this).
