Star Wars Fanfiction- Down But Not Dead

Part 2

A soft squish informed Obi-Wan that his shoulder was still bleeding. His right arm was now completely useless because of the severed muscle. The arm was splayed out next to him, festering with disapproval at the jedi's actions. Well, it's not my fault Ventress attacked me.

But other than a few sarcastic comments, Kenobi's mind was empty. Pain had overridden his ability to control himself, so he laid on the ground helplessly, catching a few bits of the lightsaber duel. His eyes fluttered closed, attempting and failing, to breathe through the pain.

"Master?"

A call, gentle but anxious, drifted to the front of his hazy mind. "Anakin?" Obi-Wan's response was barely audible, but the new presence of his padawan helped him focus.

"Rex! I need a medic!" Anakin yelled over his shoulder.

"Anakin... It's okay. I'm not dying. I'm just... tired. But I'm afraid that my arm is... going to need to be checked out." Obi-Wan had to pause in between the words to draw rattling breathes.

"You don't sound okay, Master," the jedi knight retorted.

"Trust me, Anakin. As a jedi... I'm used to being shot... stabbed, and otherwise tortured. And I'm still here, aren't I?" General Kenobi told him. A half-dozen clones jogged over and joined the pair.

One of the clones began to shine a light into his eyes. After a moment, he asked, "How many fingers am I holding up, General?"

Obi-Wan laughed at the quest. "Four." The clone nodded and shifted over to his shoulder.

The jedi cringed as the clone gingerly applied a bacta patch to his shoulder. It began to soak up the blood generating from the wound. The patch didn't however suck in the crimson streak that spread across his robes. Looking up from his robes, Obi-Wan told Anakin," Great. I don't know if I will ever be able to get the stain out of them."

Anakin grinned, glad that the jedi was regaining his breath a little. It dropped when the medic announced that Obi-Wan would need to be transferred to a medical station if they wanted to save the nerves in Kenobi-s right arm. "We won't be able to make it into Republic space in time," the medic concluded.

No, no, no, no, no, no!

"Is there any way that we could slow the process down? There's got to be some medical equipment for that. We could slow it down enough to get Obi-Wan to a Republic med-center. Why are we still standing here? Let's move!" the jedi knight rambled.

"Anakin, it's okay," General Kenobi smiled reassuringly. The medic didn't look hopeful. "Plus, this planet still needs a general. You can't just abandon them."

His former padawan didn't back down. "We should at least try! Even if I can't go. If we don't, then you don't have any chance of recovery." The medic was doubtful, but after one look at Anakin, he decided Skywalker was right. He motioned for the other clones to follow him.

While the clones were away, the jedi knight told Obi-Wan, "I will inform Master Yoda of our situation." After a minute or two, the clones came back with a stretcher and carefully slid the wounded jedi onto it. With a few loud groans, they were on their way to one of the gunners. Skywalker followed them like a lost droid and smiled slightly as his master craned his neck to see through the attending clones. "May the Force be with you, Master."

"And you, Anakin." With a tiny nod in goodbye, the doors closed, and his former master was taken out of view.

Inside the gunner, the medic approached Obi-Wan with a needle. "I am going to induce you with a medical sleep. It is all that I can think of to slow down the nerves."

"Whatever you need to do," Kenobi responded.

The clone looked at the jedi master. He looked small, almost shriveled. The medic frowned, remembering just how resilient the man was. Most patients he had were unconscious or unresponsive. But General Kenobi wasn't. The jedi general was almost cheerful. Clearing his thoughts, the clone medic injected the syringe in the jedi's right shoulder above the frayed muscle. The jedi soon welcomed the pain-relieving sleep.

===========================

Anakin paced restlessly in front of the holoprojector, worried about his master's health. He took a deep breath and calmed his emotions. Not a heartbeat later, a buzz from the holoprojector signified that Yoda was ready.

"Master Yoda," Anakin greeted, bowing.

"Good to see you, it is. Hmm," Yoda's voice echoed.

"We were driven back by the droids. When we were waiting, Ventress decided to show up. Obi-Wan was injured, so the cone medic is taking him to a Republic medical station. But Ventress cut through the muscle in Obi-Wan's arm. If he doesn't get treatment fast enough, they'll have to amputate his arm," the knight told Yoda.

"Disturbing, this is," Master Yoda replied. "Know why Ventress was here, do you?"

"No, Master Yoda."

"Speak with the council, I must. May the Force be with you and Obi-Wan." The signal died, plunging the room into darkness, leaving Anakin to think about the upcoming attack on the droids. He left the room to go talk to Rex.

===========================

A soft bubble occasionally interrupted the silence. Obi-Wan felt one pass by his mouth. It was the bubble that broke his ignorance of the situation. The general felt liquid pulsing with his heart from all sides and a rebreather positioned over his lips. Bacta tank. He found the walls before pushing himself to the surface of the tank. A moment later, a nurse in white scrubs walked in and began to unhook the jedi from all of the equipment.

"It's good to see you awake," the nurse commented. She led him through a sterile hallway and into one of the blindingly white recovery rooms. Obi-Wan went on the bed by the window overlooking a tropical planet. After the nurse insisting he slept, he straightened on the covers of the bed and watched the life outside the window. No sleep came as he waited for a doctor to come inspect him. He was met by one standing in the doorway.

"I am Dr. Tu-Shwana, and I can see you have been having quite the troubles lately," the humanoid introduced with a thick Corellian accent.

"Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, as I assume you know." He greeted.

Dr. Tu-Shwana didn't waste any more time and sat down next to his left arm. The creature rolled up Obi-Wan's sleeve to reveal stitches pulling the sides of the wound together. With a sympathetic look, the doctor said, "I'm afraid this will leave a scar."

The comment made Obi-Wan chuckle. "That's okay. It will blend in with the rest just fine."

Dr. Tu-Shwana frowned slightly at the dark humor. He then rested the arm back on the medical bed and moved to look at the other. Pulling the sleeve away, the doctor exposed a very swollen and unhappy muscle stitched closed carefully. "I-I don't- can you move your right arm for me?" Dr. Tu-Shwana almost looked sad. The doctor's reaction surprised the jedi. People with this profession are typically used to people dying in surgery, but Obi-Wan guessed that Dr. Tu-Shwana had never worked on a jedi before. Therefore, he wouldn't know just how resilient the jedi were. It takes a lot more than that to keep me down... I'm down, but I'm not dead.

Obi-Wan smiled reassuringly at the doctor before watching his arm. He did his best to lift it, but it only trembled feebly. Dr. Tu-Shwana looked at the jedi's calm face, dread freezing in his heart. "I'm sorry, Master Jedi. You won't be able to regain much movement."

"Oh, but Doctor, you don't know the Force like I do," Obi-Wan replied with a playful smile tugging at his lips.